Remember?
by OmgItsPocky
Summary: When people are lonely or under pressure, they will often speak out to their parents, friends or someone they can trust. But for Sakura, she would rather talk to a man who dresses as a hotdog for his job. "Mr. Sausage, are you a pedophile?"
1. Prologue

Author's Note:  
>Yes, another SasoSaku, and here is a short chapter for the Prologue. Don't worry, the rest will definitely be longer, if you had read my other stories, you would know how long I often write. This idea might not be original or whatever, but it had been bugging me every time I try to sleep. Anyway, enjoy :)<p>

:: SasoSaku :: AU HighSchool :: Romance, Friendship with a pinch of Humor somewhere :: OOC-ness alert :: _Thoughts_ / "Speech" ::

* * *

><p>Remember?<p>

_Prologue _

Hello. I am Haruno Sakura.

Most of you guys should have heard of me before, right? I'm one of those popular kids in Konoha High and I hang out with cool kids in town, having awesome sleepovers and always gossip all day long.

I have a couple of best friends, Ino, Hinata, Naruto and others. These are the people who will go through thick and thin with you, never leaving you even when you're in deep shit like setting an arson at the mayor's building or murdering two kittens and feed them to the sharks.

No, of course I'm not that brave or hardcore to do all these things. I'm just stating an example.

Anyway, these aren't important anymore.

A few days before my birthday, my dad suddenly got into a car accident and died. Everyone close to my dad was sad, especially my mum.

I'm the only child, so I often share my deepest sorrow or secrets to no one other than my best friends. Like I said, they would always go through anything with me, and they're always there to comfort me when I need them.

But good things would not last forever, as stated by my favorite male character from this romance drama I watched last year.

My mum soon healed from the shock of losing her husband and finally had the courage to step out and face the world again. A year or so, she met her other half when she was having this overseas business trip and she came back with him. He's a nice guy, really. He brings me to fancy restaurant and always give me money to buy whatever I want. But the most important thing is, he treated my mum just like how my dad did. They both really love each other.

And soon, they decide to get engage and stuff, and no one is against it. So everything went according to plan.

Their plan.

After a week since they came back from their honeymoon, I'm on a train to the next faraway town. Far away from my home, my school, my friends. My _everything_.

I've been enlisted into a school sooner than I thought. Because my grades are good, so the very first school that my mum helped me enrolled in accepted me immediately before I was even given a choice.

But I'm still scared.

Since I had entered school in the middle of the semester, everyone had already made best friends with each other. Who would even bother being friends with a pinkette when they are already cool and popular in the school.

I have no one to talk to.

The disdained look I always received by everyone when I first stepped into the school frightens me and soon, I got even more shy, quiet and distant from everyone; even my mum and step dad.

I miss my friends, I want to go back, but I'm afraid to tell my parents. They were living perfectly fine here and both of them were happy together. I know that if my mum were to ever go back to our old home, she would remember those sad memories with my dad, and I don't want her to be sad anymore.

That's why I always kept everything to myself, silently hopping that one day someone, anyone can save me from this loneliness I hate.

And yes.

It finally happened.

Never in my life had I thought that meeting a boy in a sausage costume could change my life.

Hello. I am Haruno Sakura. And this is my story.


	2. Smiling suits you best after all

Author's Note:  
>Suddenly, I find myself so immature and hopeful while updating this.<br>After writing for quite some time, a part of me truthfully wanted something to happen in my life, to spice it all up. Guess I'm just in a delusion?

* * *

><p>Remember?<p>

_Smiling suits you best after all._

There were two types of people in the school Sakura had been studying for months.

First, the ones who don't give a shit about your existence and never bothered to give you a second glance afterwards.

Second, the ones who just wanted your life to go through a living hell before they were ever satisfied.

At first, everyone didn't dare to get involved with Sakura since she looked kind of badass and no one understood her well. But ever since someone accidentally tripped her over during break time, everyone knew that she was someone who could be easily bullied when she didn't fight or argue back with the one that made her fall flat in the face.

Since then, her life was disastrous.

And today was no exception.

It was now physical education period which Sakura should be enjoying instead of staying in class and being stuffed, but the teacher was not feeling well so she had assigned her students to roam around the school to play the sports they wanted. Being alone with a useless badminton racket, she wandered around the school alone due to boredom to hear some shoe friction sounds not far away from her. Curious, she trudged towards the door of the court to find a group of boys playing basketball.

Sakura went to take closer look and stood just behind the entrance door, slightly poking her head into the hall. She had heard that a basketball tournament was coming soon and the players were practicing during their breaks and P.E lessons. Sakura wasn't really a big fan of basketball, but she was still interested in who was playing for the school.

"Good shot Itachi!"

Sakura blinked, her attention went back immediately to the couple of guys surrounding a rather tall man with a loose pony tail at his back. Slowly, he turned around to face Sakura's direction and everything went clear in her mind.

"Uchiha Itachi." Sakura softly sighed, reminiscing about one of her friend, Sasuke back in Konoha.

As they began the second round of training, the Uchiha smirked and easily grabbed the ball from his friend and began dribbling the ball, heading to the hoop to score another time. After a few minutes passed, the rest of the player seemed to got serious and started chasing after Itachi to get the ball.

Unintentionally, Sakura smiled when Itachi scored again, but her thoughts drifted sooner than she thought._ If I remembered clearly enough, Sasuke's parents had divorced._ Sakura pondered for a moment, resting her chin on the tip of the racket.

_Sasuke had gone with his father, staying in Konoha while his older brother went with his mother and moved town._ The pinkette nodded confidently, being positive that she wasn't wrong.

She could tell that the two brothers were not actually brotherly close. When Naruto accidentally mentioned about Itachi, Sasuke stopped talking to the innocent blonde for a whole month.

_They looked almost the same._ Sakura tilted her head slightly, a worried frown etched on her features. _Those cold and distant looking eyes…_

"What the hell are you doing here?" A girl suddenly called out and surprised the pinkette who had spun around just like a ballerina.

It was the group of girl students who had the same P.E period as Sakura. They were all holding onto a floor ball stick, seeming to be going to the court right beside the one Sakura was standing at.

One of the girls took a peek into the hall, coincidentally witnessing a guy shooting the ball successfully into the hoop.

"Are you trying to flirt with them after they had finished their training?" She gritted her teeth, turning to glare at Sakura while her other friends went to see what Sakura was looking at.

"We'll settle this somewhere." The one that had the most make up on her face grabbed onto Sakura's arm as the pinkette yelled defiantly at them to let go.

After pulling Sakura a few meters away from the players, they slammed Sakura into a nearby tree, hurting Sakura when the rough bark scratched across her back.

"How dare you spy on our husband!" One growled.

"I'm not." Sakura argued.

"You bitch. Are you planning to get Takeshi? Let me tell you, he's mine!"

What the hell, she doesn't even know who the heck was Takeshi at all. So how on earth was she going to even get him for God's sake?

"Apologize now!"

No answer.

"Then instead of having short hair, why don't we make you bald?" A girl suggested.

Bald? That's absolutely _not_ a good idea. But Sakura remained silent, not willing to ask for forgiveness. Even if her hair had to be sacrificed, she would rather stood firm and held her pride high. When Sakura had done something wrong, she would not even think twice about apologizing, but the thing was she didn't even do anything yet they demanded for an apology. Freaking no, bitches.

"Acting tough, aren't you?" One of them sneered, eyes narrowing as she brought her face closer to Sakura who was trying her best not to slap her bully right at that moment.

"Take this!" The one that claimed her love for who-knows Takeshi stormed forward and raised her hand, preparing to attack as Sakura shut her eyes, ready for the blow.

But even after seconds of waiting, she still didn't feel any pain at all, but all she heard was a few continuous sound of gasping. Sakura slowly opened her eyes out of curiousity, to find another two person appearing out of nowhere.

A redhead who was just a little taller than her was clutching tightly to the attacker's wrist, a disapproving glare directed to all of the girls.

"I wish I could see some awesome cat fights. But it wouldn't be fun if one doesn't attack back yeah." Another blonde guy spoke, pulling Sakura away from the tree and hid her behind his broad back.

"Sasori-kun… Deidara-kun!" The girls yelped in unison.

_Aren't they… _Sakura was screaming loudly in her mind, recalling a few times seeing them walking past her along the school corridors as if she was invisible. Sakura's eyes was still goggling at the blonde's back for a few more seconds before turning slightly to the other man who had already released the tight grip around the student's wrist.

_Why on earth are they helping me?_

"We have to go!" The shortest schoolgirl nudged the rest, pointing awkwardly at the school's yard.

"Yeah." The Takeshi-lover gave a quick glare at Sakura before signaling the rest. "We have other important things to do." And they were gone in a sooner than Sakura could blink.

When Deidara had loosened the grip around Sakura's wrist, it was then she knew he had been holding onto her breathe for the past one minute, which was surprising for her to miss that out because she wasn't too fond at male and female physical contact at all. Sakura was just too shock to even know that she had also stopped breathing for about five seconds previously.

But what Sakura needed the most, was them to stop bugging into her business.

The rosette doesn't need a bunch of idiotic guys to take pity on her. She's perfectly fine at retaining her temper in the first place, so getting slapped after like a hundredth of time doesn't matter to her anymore.

But if the most popular guys actually stood up to help her, all the girls would hate her even more, calling her a whore when she doesn't even talk to any guys in school.

Sakura bent down and took her racket. She glared at it for a few seconds without looking up and stomped away in silence, not turning back for once to thank them at all.

"What the heck?" Deidara gave a scoff, turning to watch the pinkette walking away. "We were just helping yeah." The blonde raised his volume, wanting Sakura to hear on purpose

"Stupid pinky." He added after his friend remained silent without responding to his displeasure.

"If you are really helping her, you shouldn't be giving her nicknames like that." Sasori chided.

"Whatever." Deidara whirled back to his friend and hung his arm over his shoulder. "Anyway, are you hanging out at the arcade later?"

"I'll pass." Sasori calmly said, taking Deidara's arm over his shoulder. "I have a job to do."

Deidara made a face. "Are you in need of money or what?"

"No, just to spent time."

"Arcade is the best way to spent time yeah."

"And to also the spent your money."

The blonde gave a defeated sigh, attempting to hang his arm over Sasori's shoulder again as they proceeded to the hall where Itachi was.

"What kind of job are you working as anyway? You never even told me or the rest of us yeah." Deidara questioned, easily resting his arm over Sasori's shoulder since the redhead was a little shorter than him.

"You don't have to know." Sasori halted his movement, making Deidara stopped as well since a part of him was hanging over his neck.

"And can you stop doing that before I tear your arm apart?"

0o0

Sakura continued jabbing the tissue onto her shirt, recollecting the moment when a group of art students _accidentally _ran into her and splashed paint onto her blouse. She had ended up spending almost an hour to scrub the color off and luckily the paint was not permanent so it was easier to remove than she thought it would.

Although Sakura was feeling very uncomfortable at the fact that her skin was getting a little itchy due to the paint that coated her body when it fell on her, she still does not want to return home so early. Really, facing the four walls and a ceiling was suffocating when she doesn't have anyone to talk to. Furthermore, it hurts even more when she had to stare at all those memorable photos that she had carefully framed up and place by her bedside table.

As Sakura quietly stared down at her clothing while walking down the pavement without noticing her surrounding, she was still able to stop herself in time before knocking her chest into a thick, brownish and squashy-looking arm that was stuck out towards her.

"Hello, please take a flyer."

"A sausage?" Sakura spoke in surprise, startled at the fact that a living hotdog spoke to her. She inspected the outfit for a few seconds before daring herself to take the piece of flyer that was given to her.

"This is to promote the hotdog restaurant that is going to be open soon." Sakura could make out the voice of the person who was wearing the costume was a man.

Sakura started scrutinizing at the renovating building behind the costume before looking back at the huge block letters in the flyer that represent the name for the restaurant. "The Youthful Passion of John's Hot Dog…"

She raised an amused eyebrow, not knowing why does the name reminded her of Lee and Gai-sensei.

"I know this isn't right to say, but…" Sakura stared up at the hotdog and gave an apologetic smile. "That's a fun-"

"Funny name? I agree."

Sakura managed a smile and added a light giggle behind. After her small laughter died down, she went back gazing at the sausage, a small smile still etched on her face even after the laugh she gave.

"You should smile more, you look beautiful like that."

Her smile soon faltered, replacing it with a confused expression. She had received countless praises when she was living in her old home, so whenever they told her how pretty her clothes, hair, or manicure was, she would brush them off and gave a _thank you_ as a reply because it doesn't mean much to her at all. Now when she heard just a simple compliment like how beautiful her smile is, Sakura felt like she was flying to heaven.

"T-Thank you." Sakura meant her words. A light blush quickly tinted her smooth cheeks.

"What happened to your shirt?" The Sausage asked, noticing the pale-colored stains on Sakura's blouse.

The said girl looked down, almost forgetting that her clothes were still in a mess.

"I've knocked into a group of art students and the paint fell on me." Sakura attempted to give a small snicker, but all she gave was a hoarse crackle. She softly sighed before proceeding with drying her shirt with the only tissue she had when the costume never replied.

Sakura only realized how awkward it was when she was just standing in the middle of the street, in front of a hog dog costume just to dry her clothes.

"Anyway, what was this place before the hotdog restaurant took over?" Sakura asked, looking up and stare at the two small beady eyes of the costume and attempted to continue the small conversation before she lost the only chance she had to talk to someone, even if it was all about sausages and buns.

"I guess you wouldn't know since the building started renovating before you came to town."

"How did you—?" Sakura blinked in surprise.

"Pink is a bright colour to dye your hair, I would suggest."

"It's natural." Sakura forced a smile as her eyelid started twitching unhealthily.

"Previously, this place was a bookstore." He went back replying Sakura's question. "It's actually my favorite place, quiet and all."

"When is this opening anyway?" Sakura hastily questioned when she doesn't know what to respond back. It's been a while since she had a proper conversation that even lasted three minutes and she doesn't want it to end so soon.

"Actually I'm not too sure." He replied. Sakura tried to imagine an embarrassed look on a man's face, but all she could visualize in her head was a hotdog.

"They had hired me to give out flyers even when the renovation wasn't complete. But that means I have more money to spent than crashing night parties every time." He continued.

Sakura really loved parties, she missed those prank-calling and gossiping times with Ino and the rest of the gang. But it had been several months since she had left Konoha so she was starting to get used to it instead of waking up in the middle of Friday night and demanding Ino to get her hot chocolate and pizza for supper.

_So this guy behind the hotdog costume is a nerd who dislikes parties and like reading and quiet places?_ Sakura gave a small pout, hoping that the man didn't notice her displeasure. But then again, she doesn't have any friends in this town to speak with, so why should she be judging anyone at all?

"Anyway, what are those flowers for?"

Sakura stared at the costume dumbfounded before turning to the flowers in her hand. "Oh." Her face fell lax before giving a soft smile back to the sausage.

"These are for my father, today is his 2nd death anniversary." Sakura afforded a weak smile.

From the corner of her eye, the grasp around the flyers loosened a bit but there was just silence.

"My dad died in an accident, four days before my birthday." Sakura tugged onto the petals of the flower, patting them neatly. "He was planning to teach me how to drive on my birthday." She gave a careless shrug, gaining back her lively state.

Knowing how awkward and silent the conversation had became, she gave a cheerful beam, deciding it was the time to introduce herself instead. "I'm Haruno Sakura. What is yours?"

"You can call me Sausage."

Sakura gave a surprised look, only able to calm herself down in two seconds. "I meant by your real name." The pinkette hesitantly said.

"It's not necessary to know."

"But I've given mine. It basic courtesy to let me know yours."

"It's not necessary."

Sakura gave a cautious look. "Then, Mr. Sausage, are you a pedophile?"

"Do I sound like one?" The costume spoke in disbelief.

Sakura shook her head, a tiny smirk forming on her lips.

"I'm actually about the same age as you." The sausage argued.

"Not until you show your face, I can never trust you about your age." Sakura gave a unconvinced shrug, urging the man to reveal himself already.

"Alright, carry on believing that I'm a pedophile."

It was a wonder. By talking to a man in a hotdog costume for just fifteen minutes, she was able to trust him with one of her deepest secret which she wasn't willing to speak about to anyone else. And to think that the sausage was willing to listen even though they probably hadn't even met before.

Maybe, chatting with a person with a hidden identity was much more easier than talking to anyone else in this unfamiliar town.

"Okay, Mr. Sausage." Sakura gave a defeated sigh after repressing a laugh at the name that had escaped her lips. She waved the flyer in her hands. "I'll drop by if it has finished renovating."

Knowing that this meant a farewell, the hotdog gave a slight wave back.

"Thanks for talking to me for the past fifteen minutes. I have to go now." Sakura added, although truthfully wanting to chat more. But she had to go back home before her mum does since she doesn't want to hear any questions regarding her blouse.

Mr. Sausage just watched Sakura skipping rather happily down the street, since her mood had lifted quite a bit. He never realized he was staring in space even after the pinktte was not in view anymore until his name was called for the third time.

"Sasori!" The hotdog finally turned and clumsily trudged towards the renovation site with the bulky costume he was wearing, wondering what does the workers wanted from him.

"Would it be a bother if you buy some mayo sauce from a nearby convenience shop for my hotdog?" The worker scratched his hungry stomach. "As in, now?"

0o0

"… Pink is my favorite color. Yes, my natural hair color somehow influence which color I like…"

"… I dislike the attentions I'm receiving because of my hair color, but I have to keep it like this or the name given by my parents would hold no meaning anymore…"

"… I'm always interested in origami. They signifies hope, and I believe in them…"

"… My secret hiding place is the school roof. Whenever I'm upset, I would always hang out at the roof alone. Not many students go there often…"

"… I have sweet tooth. I like sweets and cakes but I often tried my best to keep my body fit and slim…"

"… Sandwich is the only thing I like to eat in the canteen. No offence, but I dislike almost all the food sold in the cafeteria…"

A few days passed quicker than Sakura had thought she could manage.

Her life wasn't as dull and boring like the other months she had been in town. Whenever she passed by the construction site when she was going back home from school, she was always welcomed by the hotdog costume and they would talk about their day. Often it was Sakura who did the most talking since she was just being her old self; the talkative chap, but the sausage also replied equally with the same amount of enthusiasm as she had.

Even if the sausage doesn't regarded her as one, Sakura secretly treated him as her first friend in town. He was the only one who she could talk with more than ten minutes without getting slapped and teased every two seconds or having milk poured all over your body and being laughed about it.

By the time Sakura realized, her birthday finally came. It was nothing special actually, her mum gave a happy birthday kiss on the cheeks and prepared a scrumptious breakfast for her before both her husband and herself left for work. Then Sakura would head to school by herself and passed the renovating building of the opening hotdog restaurant.

Sakura didn't expect any birthday surprises in school since probably no one bothered to know or remembered when her birthday was, but there was something in her that made her excited today even though she doesn't know why at all.

Tugging onto her bag tightly, Sakura skipped cheerfully to school, hoping that the lessons would end soon so she could have another chat with her sausage friend.

0o0

_Happy birthday._

That was what it stated in the card.

Sakura blinked, still not believing that someone had put a birthday card in her locker. She remained staring at the card for the third time after glancing panicky around, making sure it wasn't a sort of evil prank. But after convincing herself that it shouldn't be one, her eyes finally glanced across another sheet of bigger paper behind the birthday card she was holding.

As Sakura unfolded the bigger piece of paper, it was a colored sketch of herself. She was portrayed with a bright yellow daisy in a short hair, wearing a long white casual summer dress and sitting on a long swing that was tied onto a tall tree, smiling very happily.

"This is beautiful..." Sakura whispered to herself, caressing the sketch as she stared at it for the whole minute. She remembered there were more text in the birthday card so she went back to read it again.

_During break, approached to one of the school cafeteria worker and say 'Sakura special'._

_Sausage_

"Mr. Sausage?" Sakura spoke out loud, staring in disbelief before biting her lips in excitement again. Now she doesn't have to worry about getting pranked by her schoolmates since it was stated that the gift was from her hotdog companion. Trusting her only friend, she carefully slotted the sketch in to her plastic file and closed her locker, before proceeding back to her class.

After a few boring lessons, lunch period came. Sakura made her way to the cafeteria quietly after putting the books she was not using into the locker.

The queue in the canteen was long, but she easily endured the long wait by reading the note in the card for the ninth time.

"Sakura special." She gave a squeak to the workers when it was her turn, clutching the note even tighter with embarrassment.

"Ah, so you're the one." The lady took Sakura's tray from her hand before producing another one, now filled with food.

"Happy Birthday, enjoy your meal."

"Thank you." Sakura gasped in surprise, holding the heavy tray nearer to her chest. After going in circles, she finally found a nice seat right at the corner without being shoved or tripped.

After settling her things on the table, she took the time to look at the food on her tray. There on her tray was a regular-sized cupcake with pink icing that spelt out Happy Birthday on the white cream of her cake. And next was naturally her favorite sandwich that she always ate during break, also with a packet of drink that was what she always had along with her bread.

Her eyes finally lay on the card next to the packet of drink.

_Happy Birthday._

Again, she had smiled just because of these two words. She had always took them for granted when her friends wished her a happy birthday. Now when she thought back, she was never as happy and enthusiastic for any glamorous birthday parties than this small occasion like treasure hunting for presents and surprises.

_After having your food, head up to the rooftop where you once told me it was your secret place. Make sure you had time left before break ends _

_Sausage._

Sakura was filled with excitement that she couldn't sit still on her seat. Although she wanted to head up to the roof as fast as she could, she made sure her food was totally cleared and no crumbs were left before disposing the wrappers.

Since Sakura was always eating alone and never talked and chat while having her food like how she did last time, she always finished before half of the period ended. After clearing her tray, she head up briskly to where the note instructed her to go.

In a minute, she had reached the venue where she was supposed to go. Looking around for a moment, her eyes were drawn to a box at the other end of where she was standing. Swiftly, she walked towards the box and squatted in front of it, eying on the pink box before her.

Slowly, she lifted up the lid. It was revealed to be a box full of origami folded with all sorts of colored papers. Sakura couldn't help but gasped out loud at the different cute origami inside, such as crane, flowers, and even animals like rabbit.

A small card was also in the pile of folded colored papers. Happily, she shoved her hand inside and fished out the note to see.

_Happy Birthday._

_I'm sorry but this would be the last of your Birthday adventure. I'm not a very creative person so I'm lacked of ideas on what to do for you next._

Sakura bit her lips, a huge smile started appearing before she could even control herself.

_You told me this was the secret place where you hide yourself from everyone when you are upset. This should be your first time coming here with a smile on your face, so you should remembered that the next time you come here. Smiling suits you best after all._

And at the end of the card, there was small tiny sketch of a hotdog costume, which Sakura had been talking for almost the past one week.

"Mr. Sausage…" Sakura cupped her hands over her mouth, hugging the box even tighter to the chest. Soon, minutes passed and the bell rang, almost scaring Sakura the out of the wits since she was daydreaming all the while.

"The bell!" Sakura stood up quickly and headed to the exit with her present in her hand, making sure to get back to class before the teacher came.

That day was really, the most special day Sakura had been in school. School soon ended and Sakura was more enthusiastic in meeting with her unknown friend. Packing her stuff quickly, she stepped out from her class and with some effort of avoiding as many people as possible. Sakura even managed to get out of school in less than two minutes without having to stop to listen to bitches' teasing and cursing, which was actually a record broken.

Actually, it wasn't because she was lucky that she didn't meet any of her bullies. Apparently, no one had gone up to tease her or made her life miserable like other times. Today, everyone seemed to be more obedient and often avoided her. No one vandalized or split fermented milk on her locker nor did anyone knocked over her tray of food or snatched her seat, demanding her to sit other places. She didn't get locked up in the gym room when she was in charge of today's P.E equipment too.

Although she often received glares from random girls, all the students seriously didn't do anything else, which somehow made Sakura thought she had some sort of bodyguard or angel by her side.

0o0

"Happy Birthday." The sausage handed her the red floating balloon.

"Thank you..." Sakura accepted the balloon and stared at it for a moment before turning to the quiet hotdog.

"I-I don't know how to thank you for all of these…" She gasped softly, blinking rapidly to make sure her tears wouldn't fall.

"Just keep up with those smiles everyday. That's all I can ask for return."

"Actually, why can't I know your name?" Sakura furrowed her eyebrow after giving a smile at the hotdog.

"It isn't important."

"It is to me. I can't be calling you Sausage all the time."

"I don't see why you can't."

"I find it rather rude." Sakura debated, tapping her chin thoughtfully as she shyly added. "I shouldn't be calling you Sausage all the time since you're my friend."

"Friend?" The sausage sounded shocked.

Sakura made an embarrassed look, glancing everywhere except for the costume before her. "Yeah, you're my first friend in town."

"Hn." Mr. Sausage gave a snort, a soft laughter followed afterwards.

"What's so funny?" Sakura scoffed, a light blush tinted her cheek. Back in her old home, never before does she had to make the effort to make friends with anyone. Everyone always wanted to be her friend, so usually it was them who approached her and not the other way round.

"You're interesting."

"W-What?" Sakura blinked.

The sausage never reply.

"Anyway, I'm g-going home." Sakura stated, knowing that it was unusually earlier than other meeting time she had with the sausage. But she had to go back to get ready since her parents had asked her out for dinner.

"See you then."

"Bye!"

As Sakura skipped back quickly home, she silently hoped that her embarrassment would go away already. She had just admitted that Mr. Sausage was his friend yet the answer she received was a small laugh and then saying that she's interesting. Sakura wasn't angry at him, but she's just really embarrassed and she don't know why either.

Soon, she had reached home quicker than she thought to find no one at home yet. Sakura gave a light shrug, not really expecting her parents to come back home yet. Swiftly, the pinkette then headed to her room to settle her stuff.

Sakura slowly released the red balloon form her hand, letting it to reach till her bedroom ceiling as it floated comfortably in its position. Smiling and watching it for several seconds, she took her bag and approached her bed to rest, only to find a note lying open on the bedside table. Sakura took the card and noticed the same two words that she had seen for the whole day.

_Happy Birthday Sakura!_

The birthday girl smiled, continuing reading onwards. _Remember our dinner plan? Get ready by 5.30 since we are eating out tonight, to celebrate how much you have grown._

Sakura nodded, grinning to herself as she placed the card back on the table, noting that she had about an hour left before her parents comes back home. But not knowing what struck her, she suddenly remembered her gifts and little notes she found in school during her little adventure. Unpacking her bag, she took out the small pink box and lifted the cover, revealing the sketch, birthday notes, and all sorts of different origami inside.

Rereading her cards a few times again, her eyes were then drawn to the balloon that was still floating up in her ceiling. Gazing for a moment, an image of the hotdog costume holding onto the balloon flashed across her mind.

"Wait." Sakura's smile slowly turned into a frown. She placed the things onto the table with the lid closed, her eyes not taken off the red floating object.

"If all these surprises actually happened in school, and Mr. Sausage was the one behind these…" Sakura slapped her forehead, finding out how slow and stupid she was.

"Then he must be from my school!"


	3. Do you believe in love at first sight?

Remember?

_Do you believe in love at first sight?_

"Sorry, I'm late."

Konan walked into the classroom hasitily, getting a light scolding from the teacher. She then skimmed through the classroom quickly before finding an empty seat at the back of the room, which was just beside Sakura.

The blue haired girl placed her bag over the table before settling down on her seat. Being polite like she always was, she turned to the pinkette and gave a morning greeting with a smile.

Sakura gasped out loud, although only she could hear. She inwardly gulped before kindly giving back a greeting, adding a smile that seemed force in her own opinion.

After the teacher started explaining about the project with some accent and deep language that Sakura barely able to understand, she placed her book onto the teacher's table. "Alright, if there's no question, get a partner and start moving."

"Konan, can you be my partner?" A couple of girls approached to Konan's table in no time.

"No, I am!"

Sakura jealously looked over at the cool girl beside her before staring back at her schoolwork on the table. She was once like Konan, wanted and accepted by everyone, now she could hardly even get a working partner during any school lesson for crying out loud.

Just as Sakura was about to raise her hand to tell her teacher about being the odd one out again, a grasp encircled her thin wrist, pulling it down back onto her lap before she could even lift it above her shoulder.

"Sorry, but Sakura's my partner." Konan returned back to give Sakura a smile before turning to the others. "You all would have to find others for now."

The pinkette blinked rapidly, very positive that Konan never mentioned about being partners with her, not that she minded at all.

The girls turned to Sakura who was still looking surprisingly shock. The pinkette swiftly glanced away, hoping that they wouldn't hate her because she was already a partner with one of the coolest person in school, although she could sense some sort of hatred glare directly at her.

"It's alright, another time." One of their classmates spoke, tramping back to their own seats instead.

After a while, Konan gazed at her Sakura with a warm smile. "You don't have a partner, do you?"

"No." The nervous girl responded.

"Then would it be fine if I am?"

"Of course."

Konan nodded pleasantly, scooting her chair nearer to Sakura as they started their work. The only thing they talked was about the work they were doing, but Sakura was perfectly fine with that. Other than the Mr. Sausage, Konan was the second one who had talked to her as if they were friends to begin with.

And speaking of that sausage mascot friend, Sakura had already planned on what to interrogate him later on.

0o0

Sakura stormed towards the costume and snatched away the stack of flyers from his hand before putting them behind her back.

"What are you doing? I have a job to do."

"There is no one on the street to give flyers to." Sakura glanced around before narrowing her eyes at him. "We have to talk."

The hot dog stared before directing her with his hand. "We are talking."

"Who the hell are you?"

"I said I'm not giving you any clues before."

"You did already!" Sakura put both of her hands on her hips. "You're from my school!"

"…"

"…"

"That took you long enough."

"W-What?" Sakura stuttered, giving a small punch on his arm. "Are you teasing me?"

"I'm not impressed at how slow you are this time, Sakura." The Sausage rubbed his arm. "Yes, I'm from your school." He finally admitted.

"If that's so, why can't you tell me who you are?" She gave a puzzled look.

"I don't understand why you insisted in wanting to know who I am."

"Because-" Sakura bit her lips and looked away.

_Because I want to have you as my friend in school…_

"There's no reason for it. I'm alone by myself. Why would I judge you or hate you for who you are in school?"

"You'll run away."

Sakura doesn't know whether she should take that as a joke when his tone sounded serious.

"Why would I do that?" Sakura stared at him incredulously.

The mascot didn't answer.

A horrible thought suddenly struck her and everything went cleared.

"I would guess that your friends are one of those gangs that disliked me. So revealing yourself would risk your relationship with them, am I right?" Sakura's brow slowly turned into an ominous frown.

"What?" For the first time Sakura ever heard the man in the costume sounded shocked. He was always calm and collected and sometimes teased her when he wanted to. But this time, he seemed startled. Maybe…

_You're guilty because I am right. _Sakura glowered before waving her hands in front of her face. "I'm not trying to be friends with you and your clique or anything, I'm just-" Sakura paused there, not knowing how to continue.

"-Guessing for fun." Sakura spoke hastily, placing the flyers onto his hands before turning around and started walking off.

"I have to go. See you." But her tone given could be just translated to _"I hope we'll never see each other again."_

And obviously Sasori didn't miss it out even when he wished he had.

0o0

"Oh seriously, fuck you Kisame." Hidan threw a piece of wrapper furiously at Kisame while he was almost tearing onto a piece of paper he was holding. "Why did you let me copied the wrong page for the test?"

"I have no words to describe how dumb you are at all." Kisame shook his head sadly.

"You're fucking dead to me." Hidan slammed the paper down against the rows of lockers, revealing a huge big letter F at the top corner of the paper.

"Idiot." Deidara rolled his eyes before looking at his best friend who was standing beside him and staring in space.

_It's her… _

Giving his best friend a skeptical look, Deidara followed Sasori's gaze to find himself also staring at the pinkette he met a couple of weeks ago. "Oh, it's that girl." The blonde made a face.

"She's unthankful yeah." Deidara added with a scoff before turning back to the redhead. "I had scared away my fan-girls in order to stop her from getting slapped yet she just walked away ungratefully." The blonde sighed exaggeratedly.

"Are you even listening?" He then waved his hand in front of the redhead while raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Sasori gave a glance at him, going back to view the row of lockers when his loud best friend was convinced that he was lying.

"You mean Sakura?" The only girl in the coterie asked when her attention was drawn away from the argument between Hidan and Kisame.

"I guess so, if that's her name." Deidara raised an eyebrow, jabbing his thumb at the pink-haired girl.

"She's a nice girl." Konan made a frown, not happy at the fact that Deidara had mentioned about the way their schoolmates were treating Sakura. "Although she's distant and shy, she'll never do anything to hurt anyone. So obviously the girls were bullying her because they just find it fun."

"Just last week, a group of girls locked her in one of the toilet's cubicle. A teacher went to help when she heard her shouts outside." Kisame added after silencing the argument by promising he will read up that Jashinism book Hidan was going to lend him later.

"And why didn't you help her?" Itachi asked quietly.

"Well, it's a women's bathroom." Kisame pointed out innocently.

"She looks ok." Hidan commented before shaking his head in pity. "But she's too fucking-" Hidan made all sorts of weird hand gestures before finally knowing what to say.

"Stiff. Yes. She looked so fucking stiff." He nodded to himself as he pointed at her openly. "See the way she walk with her bag and books, just like a robot."

When the group was watching the pinkette silently, a guy suddenly came out from nowhere and gave Sakura a push, almost toppling over with her heavy books in her arm.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it." He then gave a loud laugh, telling Sakura that in fact, he meant it before strolling back to his group of friends who were staring mockingly at Sakura,

"Ouch?" Kisame scrunched up his face while Konan clicked her tongue.

"Why don't we let her join our group?" Sasori finally spoke. Everyone's attention turned to the redhead who was leaning against the lockers lazily.

"What?" Sasori spat after he find it rather uncomfortable having like six men and a woman staring at him like that.

"Shorty had finally done something constructive to the gang for a change." Hidan smirked.

Sasori shot a glare.

"Hanging out too much with you guys slightly turn me gay yeah." Deidara agreed eagerly. "We can't share Konan, so what's the point if we have her in our group." The blonde glanced at the leader before staring at the rest to get some support.

"You're the only one turning gay." Hidan sniffed. Before Deidara could argue, Pein interrupted.

"That's actually a good idea." He nodded, slightly pleased at the idea that the rest of his friends could finally get their hand of his girl.

"We could have so much fun." Hidan blurted out.

"You and your nonsense again." Kakuzu muttered.

"Shut up, stitch face." Hidan stuck out his tongue before continuing. "I think we should make a surprise party and welcome her in."

"You're just making excuse to party again." Itachi blurted.

"Shut up, you blind shit." The silver-haired man clutched his fish and banged the lockers beside him when his motive was exposed.

Deidara laughingly nudged onto his friend's arm, only to find Sasori staring in space again. But when Deidara turned to see what Sasori was gaping at again, he knew his redhead friend wasn't just daydreaming, but actually gazing at the pinkette who was silently making her way up the stairs alone.

0o0

"Sakura."

For the first time she had heard her name being called in the cafeteria, which was something she experienced everyday in KonohaHigh, but definitely not in this new school.

She spun around, finding Konan waving at her, with a group of some familiar faces sitting on the same table as her. An empty spot was visibly seen beside the blue-haired student.

Not sure what to do, Sakura trudged forward and stood awkwardly behind Konan and Pein who were sitting together. She forced a smile and gave a small wave at them, her eyes set at Konan only as she knew every single one of Konan's friend were staring up at her.

Konan pat the seat, signaling to Sakura. "Join us for lunch."

"I don't think that would be a great idea." Sakura finally took the courage and only glanced briefly at the other male schoolmates before looking back at Konan. The calm blue-haired girl turned to see what Sakura was looking nervously at before facing her again.

"They don't mind. I'm sure." Wanting to convince Sakura more, Konan turned to ask them.

"You guys don't mind if Sakura to join right?"

"Of course not." Hidan was the first to say.

"Join us." Pein pointed at the seat too.

"We don't mind."

Sakura head shot up and her eyes met with a certain Uchiha who was sitting opposite of Pein. The pinkette didn't know why was she so alerted when she heard Itachi's voice. Although their eyes met for a second, Sakura immediately looked back at Konan and gave a smile.

"Alright."

"This is Deidara, Sasori." Konan paused to let Sakura registered the names into her mind. "Itachi, Kisame, Kakuzu." She gave another pause as she continued pointing at them individually. "Hidan and lastly Pein."

"And like what I've talked about her, She's Haruno Sakura." Konan directed at the rest.

"Nice to meet you." Sakura bowed her head.

"Damn." Hidan rested his chin on the palm of his hand. "She looks less awkward, stiff and even more hot at closer view."

_Awkward and stiff? _Sakura blinked.

"All you notice was how hot she is yeah. Doesn't anyone notice her hair color or something?" Deidara, who was sitting opposite of Sakura spoke.

_Wait… wasn't he from that day…_ Sakura slightly turned and made eye contact with the redhead who was sitting just opposite of Konan.

The pinkette then looked down and started unwrapping her sandwich wrapper.

"You're right. I almost missed that out." Kisame spoke.

"Speaking about skin color instead." Hidan yawned.

"Oh really? So having pink eyes is very normal?"

"You should join us lunch every time." Konan turned to speak to Sakura who was nibbling onto her food.

"We're cool yeah" Deidara stated before pointing at Hidan. "All you need is to get use to people like Hidan and his-"

"Continue that, Barbie girl." Hidan spat, turning his attention towards Deidara. Speaking of Barbie, Deidara indeed looked quite the same as Ino the more Sakura stare at him.

"You called me Barbie? Says the person who gelled his hair like two hundred times before coming to school yeah."

Sakura stared in amazement at the group while Kakuzu was trying to restrain Hidan from wasting his food by throwing it at Deidara. Sasori was calmly sitting in between Deidara and Itachi, watching his blonde best friend making a fool out of himself before snapping at him and telling him to shut up.

"Deidara is partially right though." Konan whispered to Sakura sheepishly. "You have to get used to, not only Hidan, but the rest of us who likes to bicker about any issue no matter what."

Sakura shook her head. "I can get use to this actually." She beamed, immediately remembering the same occurrence where Kiba and Naruto would fight about how awesome they both were and Sasuke and Shikamaru had to pull both of them away before they actually kills each other.

Sakura's gaze slowly turned to Itachi who was sipping onto his drink and commenting on Deidara's recklessness before recommending Sasori some sort of techniques to deal with his best friend's behavior.

_Brother are indeed brothers. The way they calmly talks and drink were almost the same..._

After Itachi had finished his speech for the redhead beside him, he glanced past Sakura and noticed her turning her eyes away to stare nervously at the wrapper on the table.

"Oh yeah? I wonder who got reccomanded to the cheerleading team because someone looks like a girl."

"You're the first person I know to fail an exam because you copied the wrong page of the test paper."

Sakura really do admired how Sasori actually withstand being in between of the two arguing party. If it was her, she would have gave them solid punches already.

The redhead was glaring at Deidara who had naturally placed his arms on his shoulder while attacking back at Hidan's arguments. Sensing her gaze, he turned to stare at the pinkette who was still looking at him.

_No, I can't look away this time._ Sakura inwardly gulped and gave a smile at him.

His lips parted for a second before his attention were drawn to Konan who started speaking to him.

"I've almost forgotten." She rested her arm on the table as she looked up to Sasori. "I've got more interesting books on origami folding that I've picked up from a store. Do you still need them?"

"What?" Hidan shouted, unintentionally hearing what Konan had said. "Sasori folds origami?" He roared with laughter as he started slamming the table in a comedic way.

"Is there something wrong guys having a hobby for origami, Hidan?" Konan glared before turning to Sasori, a look that told the redhead to ignore him.

"Thanks, but I don't need it anymore." Sasori muttered, still looking daggers at the chortling Hidan before turning to face the blonde who was holding back his laughter.

Sakura stared right back at Sasori, immediately remembering the box of origami she kept in her locked drawer.

_Origami…_

"Chick, Sakura is your name right?" Hidan suddenly asked. A few members stopped talking among themselves to see what Hidan was up to this time.

"Yes." The said girl nodded.

"You interested in Jashinism?"

"I'm sorry?" Sakura stretched her head to hear better.

"Ignore him yeah." Deidara rolled his eyes. "That guy is crazy over his stupid religion."

"Don't you dare change my pure and innocent Sakura to someone like you." Konan directed a glare at Hidan.

"I second that." Kakuzu muttered before adding softly. "Not that I'm complimenting about how pure or innocent she is."

"A religion? I've never heard that before." Sakura spoke honestly, trying to ignore the light blush that tinted her cheek when Konan called her like that.

"It's the true meaning of beauty for all beings in the world." Hidan raised his hands up in the air.

"Beauty? All I know is that my art is the true beauty yeah."

"That's the worst crap I've heard from you." Sasori gave a disdained look.

"Oh yeah? Your eternity art is the crap we're talking about." Deidara scoffed.

Usually, over the canteen table, Sakura's friends would often talked about all sorts of stuff too. But most of the time they talked were about people; the people around them.

_"Oh really? She can never get a boyfriend. I mean come on, is she dressed for some circus entertainment?_ _If she is, she's doing a good job at it."_ Ino and the rest would be filled with laughter.

Sakura realized, even when they were not talking bad about someone, she could actually have lots of fun and interesting conversation with the other person just like how Konan's clique were all doing now. No feelings hurt, no broken relationship. Everyone was happy.

How could she not notice that until now? How many people's feelings had she hurt when her schoolmates were the victims of their clique's gossips and conversation?

"You ate… sushi?" Kisame stared horrified at his friends, feeling more betrayed than ever.

"Couldn't help it Kisame." Itachi spoke calmly. "There was a huge sale and I have to buy some cause they looked nice."

"Sushi's are nice." Pein commented softly as he nodded to himself.

0o0

"Aw shit. The bell." Hidan groaned, stuffing his remaining food into his mouth while the others were packing up their trays and rubbish.

Sakura blinked and straightened her posture as she crushed her wrapper. This was the fastest break she had ever had in her life when she was here. She had been enjoying herself, tearing up sometimes from their silly jokes and adding a few comments that everyone agreed and sided her for. And most of the time Hidan was getting those ownage lines from her and he ended the topic with some curses before proceeding to another argument he had for the day.

"What lessons are you guys having?" Konan asked.

After exchanging their information, it seemed that Itachi and Sakura would be heading to the left side while the rest would go to the right side.

"Thanks for letting me to join you guys for lunch." Sakura called out.

"Of course, friends do that every time." Deidara slung his arm around the redhead again.

_F-Friends?_

"Let's go before we are late." Sasori spoke.

"If you grow longer legs, you will never have to worry about being late for class." Hidan patted onto Sasori's head.

"Hidan, knock it off." Pein spoke, representing a glare for Sasori. "We'll never get back to class in time with your nonsense." They were all soon gone within a few seconds of pulling and pushing.

"Shall we go?"

Sakura blinked, whirling around to find Itachi standing before her. She had thought the Uchiha had gone ahead alone, never had she thought he was actually waiting for her.

"Yeah." She hastened beside Itachi and slowly walked their way through the crowd in silence.

"I noticed that you've been staring at me in the canteen for quite some time, is there something wrong?" Itachi gave a tiny smirk.

"W-What?" Sakura flushed. "Am I?" She asked innocently.

"I'm pretty sure you are conscious of it since you looked away when I stared at you too." Itachi gave a sidelong glance at Sakura.

"I'm sorry." The pinkette stared down at her feet.

Come on, everyone was trying to get Sakura's attention from her, back when she was popular so it was truely the first time she had to stare at someone in a secretive mode, which she found how ridiculous she must had looked like to Itachi. And to add on how stupid and embarrassed she should be when the person actually confronted you about it

"No, you don't have to be. I'm used to girls staring at me." Itachi calmly spoke, which soothed Sakura a lot.

"I'm just thinking about some things." Sakura explained.

"Ah." Itachi nodded to himself before turning his head to Sakura. "What are you thinking of?"

"You reminded me of a friend back at my old school."

"Oh? Do we look alike?"

Sakura nodded, and her mouth opened to speak out the name without even knowing what she was even doing. "Your brother, Sasuke."

"Sasuke?" Itachi halted on the spot, his eyes widened so slightly that it couldn't be seen by the naked eye.

Her breathed hitched for a second as she turned to face Itachi nervously. "I-I'm from the same school as Sasuke before I transferred here."

Itachi had soon regained back his composure and closed his eyes before they started walking again, in silence. After a while of walking, Sakura finally stood outside a classroom door.

"I've reached my class."

Itachi turned to face the pinkette standing outside the door and gave a curt nod.

"Alright." He gave a small smile as he continued. "See you around soon."

Sakura bowed politely and returned an assured smile before heading back inside the class without looking back. When she settled her stuff on the table, more classmates started filling the whole room and Itachi couldn't be seen anymore, not that she was expecting she could see him when she had already sat on her chair.

0o0

"Hey."

"Oh." Sakura stopped on her track as she came face to face with the familiar mascot.

"Hi." Sakura replied. She had been pondering hard about eating with her new bunch of friends and also interacting with Itachi for the first time that she had not even realized she was already outside the renovation site.

"You seems exhausted."

Sakura looked up and stared at the costume, not knowing what to say. She was surprised that the mascot started the conversation first when it was always her doing it. Was he still worried about what happened yesterday? If he had, Sakura actually wanted to tease him about it.

She was over it when she managed to calm herself down after a nice long bathe and realizing that she was being such a childish and stubborn brat for getting angry at such a thing. Although Sakura was still wondering who could her friend be, she decided that she shouldn't mention about the topic to only end them up in arguments again.

"What makes you say that?" Sakura walked forward and leaned onto the red brick wall along the pavement.

"I don't know. You looked rather troubled."

"I'm just thinking about, things." Sakura gave a soft sigh.

"How's school?"

Sakura glanced up astonishment. Mr. Sausage had often asked this statement whenever she was coming back from school, and her responds was always a light shrug or a small laugh, replying that there wasn't anything going on lately in her school life.

But today was different, so how was she supposed to reply him?

"Today was interesting." Sakura slowly nodded her head.

"Oh?" There was an obvious lack of surprise in his tone, but Sakura decided to ignore it. "What happened?"

Sakura gave an embarrassed wave. "I made… friends." The pinkette slowly put down her hand and back to her side.

"Isn't that great?" The mascot paused for a moment. "That's what you always wanted, right?"

"Yeah." Sakura gave a smile. "Konan. She is a nice person and so are her friends I met today. What happened today seems like a miracle to me, able to talk and have lunch with a couple of schoolmates together. All these things happening seemed so unreal, although I really hoped that this isn't a dream."

"I'm pretty sure this isn't a dream." The mascot said.

"Do you know them? Konan's clique." Sakura asked, almost forgetting that he was from the same school as her.

"Yeah. I do."

"Of course." Sakura leaned back on the wall again. "They're all popular and well-known for looks and all sorts of other reasons that I might never realize or know."

The hot dog costume stared weirdly at the pinkette who seemed to be in space again "What's wrong?"

"I'm just feeling confused about something." Sakura finally admitted.

"What is it?"

"I thi-" Sakura then turned to face her friend with a raised eyebrow. "Are you on an interrogation mode?"

"I'm a curious sausage after all."

Sakura rolled her eyes childishly before looking down at her feet with a small smile forming on her lips.

She recalled Deidara waving at her when she was getting some books from her locker during her last second period with his redhead best friend standing impassively beside him. And then Kisame offered some coins for her when she doesn't have change to buy drinks from the vending machines.

Kakuzu and Pein did gave her a friendly nod when they passed by each other down the corridor, and then Hidan actually stopped flirting girls just to let Sakura passed through the door, but his kindness soon changed to something Sakura found it annoying when he attempted hitting on her instead.

All these… It's just hard to believe. She's making new friends. There were actually people who wanted her as part of their life. Although she knew some of them weren't as talkative like Hidan, Kisame or Deidara, at least they were making the effort to make Sakura feel that she was part of them, and not because Konan forced them to.

She sighed inwardly as she stared at the pavement for a couple of seconds. However, this wasn't actually the thing that was bothering her since break time ended. Sakura hadn't seen Itachi ever since that little conversation and she had been wondering for the whole time if speaking about Sasuke in front of him was the deadliest sin she had done in her life.

That loneliness that were reflecting in Itachi's eyes when Sasuke's name was mentioned had bothered her for quite some time and she just couldn't shake this weird feeling off no matter what she do or think about other things.

"Sakura?"

"Huh?" She stood up straight, looking up at the sausage with a blurred look.

"You're in a daze again."

"Actually…" Sakura stared uncertainly on the ground before looking up at the hot dog costume.

"Hm?" The mascot turned to face her direction.

The pinkette raised her head and gazed back at Mr. Sausage before the color of pink spread across her face.

"Can I ask you a question?"

The silence indicated Sakura to continue.

"Do you believe in love at first sight?"


	4. At least cry on my shoulder

Remember?

_At least cry on my shoulder._

"I don't know."

Sakura stared at the mascot. His voice sounded rather uncertain, as if he was keeping something from her.

"So you're hopeless in romance too?" Sakura gave a soft snicker.

"You can say so." He replied monotonously.

Out of the blue, Sakura felt extremely interested in Sausage's love life. Maybe she can get some clue and figured out who the hell was he.

"Do you have any girlfriend?" Sakura smiled, putting her hands behind her back.

Sasori blinked. The way Sakura was smiling at him definitely wasn't the one he liked the best.

"No. I don't." The mascot gave a muffled reply.

Sakura sighed disappointedly, tapping comfortingly on the hot dog costume despite the fact that she wasn't doing that well in her love life either.

"Been in love?" She questioned.

There was silence.

"So you're in love!" Sakura beamed, clapping both of her hand before clasping them together. "Who is she?"

Still silence.

Sakura frowned before stroking her invisible beard and stood closer to him. "Who is _he_?"

"I'm not answering anything." Mr. Sausage drawled, not understanding why the pinkette couldn't get the hint that he was trying to avoid the subject.

She huffed, raising an amused eyebrow. "Oh well, I shall stop then."

"Why did you ask?" The mascot couldn't help but to question Sakura before they really move on to the next topic.

She fiddled with her blouse. "I'm puzzled about certain things happening today."

"The way you said it tells me you has met someone to make you feel that way." Sausage spoke.

Sakura blinked, turning to the hotdog man. Her eyes wide with earnest curiosity at how no one but him actually understood how she was feeling.

"Yeah." And then there were silence.

"I see." The mascot spoke quietly before turning slightly away from her direction.

Sakura was rather surprised that her friend didn't inquire about who she was actually referring to. But it was better this way though.

"Oh, I've almost forgotten." Sakura snapped her fingers. The hotdog costume stared back at her.

"Do they sell ice cream here? I'm craving for some lately but I don't really recall any stores selling ice cream in this town."

0o0

Days passed rather quickly when Sakura was actually enjoying herself at school for the first time of her life. Even her mother realized that her daughter was getting socialized with her schoolmates when Sakura was always radiating brightly with that cheerful smile every time she left the house for school.

Sakura had friends to talk to during changing of classes and break periods everyday. But no matter how school had started being fun for her, the pinkette always couldn't wait to hang out with that particular sausage man whenever she was walking back home school after studying for half an hour in the library.

Konan and Sakura were now partners in all classes that they both had the same together. They could be refer as best friends if people just actually notice how they often laughed and talked about every single thing, but mostly people just ignored Sakura and don't really give a damn about Sakura and her friendship business with anyone.

"How did you and Pein get together?"

Konan raised her head from her worksheet and blinked at the question, but she didn't ask Sakura why the sudden curiosity from her.

"It was a little chaotic, now that I remember." Konan's eyes were suddenly distant, as if she was thinking about the past.

"Pein was a little, or you can say, very bad at showing emotions and feelings. But eventually we got together, with a little help from the other guys." She gave a faint smile.

Sakura nodded and returned a smile. "But how do you know you were in love with him?"

The pinkette was never _really _in love once in her life. Once, Ino and her were both arguing about who fitted Sasuke the best and they sort of ended their friendship there.

Only about a week or so, both of them realized how foolish they were and they became best friends again. They even ignored Sasuke when he asked what on earth were they doing with those hugs Ino and Sakura often exchanged ever since they broke of their precious relationship.

The feeling Sakura had for Sasuke was just infatuation that lasted for a few days and nothing else. They had been best friends for years and feeling like this once in a while should be quite normal for girls around Sakura's age. But this matter occurred a long time ago and the rest of them never mentioned it ever again.

"It's something hard to explain." Konan spoke calmly, resting her chin on top of her palm while she placed her pen on the table.

Sakura had tried relating the feeling of infatuation she had for Sasuke and compared that weird feeling she felt around Itachi. But it didn't work. The feeling she felt was completely different.

"When I see him, I just knew." The mature female turned back to Sakura. "I thought of nothing but him, I wanted nothing but him. I just know that I wanted to be with him and no one else."

"No one but him…" Sakura echoed. The words were simple, yet it seemed like Sakura was getting nearer and nearer to her answer.

As the pinkette tried recollecting the moments she had with Itachi, she wasn't thinking or wanting nothing but him.

What she felt was just a weird feeling… a feeling of…

_Ah! _

The word Sakura been searching for clicked in her mind.

_Déjà vu!_

Sakura tried calming herself down inwardly. For a sudden, she just felt as if she had found a solution to an unsolved case.

Only when Konan's words pierced her, Sakura finally understood even when she was pondering about it for so long. When she was thinking about Itachi, it wasn't just only him and nothing else. Those times when the older Uchiha was in her mind, it always leaded to her fond memories of Sasuke, Naruto and the rest.

Sasuke was Itachi's brother. And technically, they were exactly the same. Their attitude, their calmness, their dry humor, their everything. Calling them brothers was not enough. They could have been twins if they actually change their hairstyle or something.

Itachi was just something that Sakura was holding on for so long. It was the only thread she had to remind herself the happy memories she had with her friends since Itachi resembled so much of her best friend, Sasuke.

After their conversation died down, Sakura was still staring in space while her Konan was already concentrating doing her work.

The burden of thinking that she actually liked someone suddenly lifted from her shoulders. She had never felt so free for once. Being locked up in a weird emotion that she can't describe at all was really killing her.

Hah, and there she was, being all panicking when she thought she was in love with Itachi.

Guess she was not after all.

0o0

Pieces of papers were passing around, from clique to cliques, from tables to tables. Loud chattering and laughter could be heard from everywhere all of the sudden.

When Konan and Sakura were slowly walking towards to their usual table together during break period which ended coincidentally when they were having the same lesson, the people they passed were all pointing at the pinkette and then they would start chortling to themselves before waving a piece of paper in the air.

Only after a few seconds than Konan finally lost her cool.

"Have you had enough of your sickening chuckles?" The blue haired student kicked the chair that was seated by the guy who was laughing nonstop.

"Chill. Konan." He said before handing the paper for her to see. "It's time for you to reconsider having a friend like her now."

She narrowed her eyes and snatched the paper from his hand. As Konan's eyes scanned through the paper for a second, she ripped the paper into shreds.

"Who the hell did this?" She roared and the cafeteria went in to silence for a second before getting noisy again.

Sakura slowly trudged beside Konan who was glaring at the crowd. She slowly bent forward and picked up the remaining pieces that Konan had tore from the original large poster. Even just by looking at one third of the torn poster had disgusted Sakura enough.

It was a picture of her lying on her stomach, arms crossed and feet swinging in the air seductively. Although she was wearing only a thin piece of hot pink bra, her large cleavage was enough to reveal everything.

"Alright who the fuck did this." At the table where Konan and Sakura were previously heading to, Hidan unexpectedly stood up and had one of his legs stepped onto the chair, his lavender eyes glaring at everyone threateningly. One of his hands was rolling up the piece of exact paper into a ball.

Next was Deidara who stood up. The blonde slammed his hands on the table and glared at everyone just like Hidan.

"Own up yeah! Asshole." The blonde swore out loud.

Sakura's green eyes were then drawn to the posters that were on the table where her only friends were sitting around.

She knew the photo was edited, she knew her friend understood that too. But why were her hands trembling and her eyes were starting to tear up?

Everyone was laughing

"_Student by day, hooker by night."_

Everyone was laughing.

"_No wonder so many guys suddenly started hanging out with her."_

Everyone was laughing.

"_Whore."_

Sakura suddenly became dizzy, her grasp was loosened and the paper slowly floated back onto the ground. She stepped back for a second as both of her hands cupped over her quivering mouth, refusing to let that small whimper escaping from her lips.

"I can't believe they are rooting for her." Sakura heard some say.

"What did that bitch done to make them go with her?" A girl from the other side of the canteen spoke to her group.

Soon, everyone was not talking about the poster anymore. The students in the cafeteria were all talking about how Sakura had influenced Konan's clique to support her.

"Sakura…" Konan turned to find the pinkette walking back and away from her. Konan wanted to reach for her female friend, to comfort her that everything was alright but it was too late.

Sakura whirled around and started to sprint towards the door. Before she pushed open the door to escape, Konan noticed Sakura was wiping something away from her eyes. Tears.

As people were walking from groups to groups to discuss about Sakura's attempt on befriending with one of the popular groups in their school, Pein and the rest approached Konan who was watching helplessly at the spot where she last seen Sakura.

"They certainly went overboard this time." Kisame commented.

"What a slut. Why bother?" A classmate of Kisame argued when he heard the said man spoke.

Sasori who was standing closest to him turned and grabbed onto his uniform, lifting him up from his seat and almost from the ground.

"That's right, punch him." Hidan cheered.

His chocolate-brown eyes narrowed into a slit as the helpless guy was staring back at Sasori with a little pleading look to tell him not to listen to what Hidan had suggested. Itachi pulled the redhead back to his place and pushed the guy who mocked Sakura back to his seat.

"It's worthless to waste your time on people like them." Itachi murmured, looking down at his schoolmate who was dusting his shirt off on his seat.

"You never lose your cool before yeah." Deidara noted. Sasori just ignored him and glared at nothing.

"I couldn't blame him when they had done stuff like this." Kakuzu gave an are-you-dumb look at the blonde.

Deidara just shrugged doubtfully.

After watching his girlfriend staring in space, Konan looked back at Pein before glancing at the two other guys who were standing beside the leader.

"Pein, Itachi, Sasori. Try to find Sakura before she does anything reckless." Konan whispered hastily as she gave them a push.

"The rest of us will solve the things here."

0o0

If Sasori could, he would have argued to stay.

He regretted not punching that guy who had shouted such a nasty nickname at Sakura.

But Deidara was right. He had never lost his cool before.

Sasori understood why was he reacting like this, but he couldn't believe how easily he exposed his anger right in front of everyone. Pushing those un-important things from his mind, he stared down the almost empty hallway and concentrated.

"Where could she be?" Sasori wondered out loud. Pein and Itachi had left searching for cubicles and classrooms while the redhead was still standing here and doing nothing.

He thought for a second longer until something clicked in his mind.

"Roof." Sasori whispered to himself before sprinting towards the flight of stairs.

0o0

Sasori pushed open the exit door and a huge gust of wind almost forced him to close the door before he could even take a step onto the rooftop. Shoving the heavy metal door to the wall, he walked forward, not bothering to hide his presence as the heavy door swung back to its original position with a loud slam.

The sobs that he previously heard before the door slammed back had abruptly stopped and he knew, the girl he was finding was here.

As Sasori tentatively trudged towards the usual corner behind a large wall, he spotted an elbow sticking out from the corner. He came closer and finally spotted a bright color; pink.

Sakura was sitting on the ground, knees to her chest and her head snuggling into her thin arms that were crossed over her knee.

"Sakura." He called out.

Knowing that she was discovered, the pinkette slowly lifted up her head and stared at the redhead who was scrutinizing her terrible state. Her face was extremely red, with dried tear lines and pink messy locks sticking onto her damped cheeks.

At first, Sakura was startled to actually see someone here in the first place when no one would come here during breaks, but she got an even ruder shock when she realized the one before her was none other than the quiet and calm redhead.

_How did he…_

Sasori bent his knees as he squatted in front of Sakura. He silently brushed her hair away from her face before putting his hand back to his side.

"Everyone is worried."

Sakura then realized it was the very first time Sasori called out her name and even talked to her. During recess, they would often give each other glances sometimes and Sakura would then smile and him politely while Sasori would just avert his eyes away from her, nothing more.

But when he first spoke to her with his angelic voice that he had never used on anyone else, she swore her heart just skipped a beat.

Yet when the images of her being ridiculed at in the canteen immediately brought tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Sakura covered her face with both of her hands. "I'm so sorry for dragging you guys into this mess."

Sasori stared at the crying girl who had started hiccupping in between her sobs. The redhead had wished for a second that it was either Pein or Itachi that had found her and not him. He was thoroughly dumb-founded and shocked to do anything to comfort her at all. Itachi and Pein could use some of their experience in their previous relationship to help but Sasori just doesn't have any.

He bit his lips regrettably and stared in the cloudy sky before closing his eye. Sasori took a deep breath and extended his arm out and over Sakura's shoulder before pulling her into his chest.

Sakura hiccupped again, her eyes flung open in shock as her sobs went silent for a second. She quietly inched her head to one side to see Sasori's chocolate brown eyes staring back hers.

Her heart skipped a beat again.

"Sa-Sasori…" She mumbled.

It was now or never.

"If you want to cry, don't cry alone. At least cry on my shoulder." Sasori spoke, swearing he must had picked that line somewhere from a TV show or something, but those words just came out from him so suddenly that he didn't even realize what was he even saying.

"Sasori…" Sakura inhaled a large breath and tried to exhale calmly but a hiccup interrupted her as she looked away from his eyes. When Sasori began patting on her back, she could feel the tears forming and she started sobbing like a baby again.

This time, Sakura wasn't really crying because she was mocked at a while ago, she was crying because she suddenly missed her friends back in her old town. They would always be there to comfort her like how Sasori was doing now when she was down.

They were always there for her.

They were always…

There…

_Mr. Sausage…_

Sakura doesn't understand why the hotdog man actually appeared in her mind out of the sudden. But when she started thinking about him, more complicated thoughts invaded her mind. What if the man in the mascot was actually watching her in the canteen along with his other friends who might be mocking her?

_Could he be trying to find me now or maybe laughing along with his friends?_

The pinkette shut her eyes tightly, not wanting any more thoughts to cloud her thoughts. All she wanted was to cry her hearts out before she lost her chance to do it ever again. All the pain, all the misery Sakura felt and bottled inside her had to be let out sooner or later, if not she couldn't take it anymore.

And there, Sasori just kept her close to his chest and rested his chin lightly on the top of her messy pink hair.

"I'm…" Sasori gave a short pause before continuing.

"We." The redhead corrected himself as he said the rest of the sentence with confidence.

"We are here for you."

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

I have to admit, the chapters that would be coming might be either the same length or longer a little bit. For my country, school is starting soon so I might not have enough time to multi task with my other ongoing story anymore. But luckily I have drafted them out so everything should still go on smoothly; I hope.

All I want for Christmas is you (reviews?)~  
>Merry Christmas Everyone! :D<p> 


	5. Be the person you always are

Remember?

_Be the person you always are._

"Son of a bitch."

The swear was quickly followed by a loud scoff before Hidan started rocking his chair back and forth.

"Fuck all the homework." Hidan stopped seesawing with his chair and sprawled tiredly onto his table. "And fuck this detention too."

"Stop your cursing or I'll give you more detention if that's what you want." The teacher in charge shot a glare before looking down at her papers.

Deidara rolled his eyes and turned to Hidan who started muttering curses. Really, it was their fault for the fight that broke a few hours ago, but thanks to their poor oral skills and the lack of back up from the so-smart Itachi or Sasori who was the best in argumentative-skills since they left in search for Sakura, they had to suffer detention after school.

"I've thought about it yeah." Deidara nodded his head slowly.

"Thought about what?" Hidan sneered. "About the fact that you should get a haircut so you can look more like a boy?"

Deidara gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down while taking a few deep breathe. He turned to Hidan and gave a harshest glare he could manage.

"One more question about my sexuality again and I'll come to your house tonight and shave your entire hair."

"Chill." Hidan straightened his posture and patted his precious head with both of his hands. He glanced at the old looking teacher before leaning back into his chair. "Then what the hell are you thinking about?"

"Sasori." Deidara regained back his composure.

"I thought you would say Sakura." Hidan raised a questioning eyebrow since it would be the most appropriate time to do so. "What about him anyway."

"As his best friend, I got a feeling that something is wrong with him ever since we _started noticing_ Sakura yeah." The blonde emphasized.

Hidan narrowed his eyes and laid his head on the table, no longer interested with the conversation.

"Do you think he likes Sakura?" Deidara whispered, nudging Hidan with his elbow.

"Please don't talk me into relationship stuffs." Hidan pushed Deidara's arm away and scowled. "That time when I screwed up for helping Pein to get Konan, I was fucking scarred for life."

"Oh." Deidara chortled, reminiscing the past. But his thoughts were snapped back to reality as he scratched his chin.

"But seriously. This was the first time I've seen him so angry about something else other than our arguments over art yeah." The blonde sighed in frustration and started scratching his chin again whenever he was deep in thought.

"…"

"Don't you think so?" Deidara gave a sidelong glance at his sluggish friend.

"…"

"…"

"Do I look like I fucking know?" Hidan hissed, glaring at Deidara. "Girl, you can go create some romance novel already with that fucking imagination of yours. Come on, even when I'm not exactly Sasori's best friend, I know that the redhead doesn't even understand a single thing about romantic issues and love. Go and get a brain, barbie."

_I remembered that I've lost my scissors in the art room before yeah... _Deidara narrowed his eyes into a dangerous slit and glared down at Hidan who had turned away.

_If I drop by at a store to get a pair of scissors, I still have time to do my stuff before heading to Hidan's house to make him bald._

0o0

Home was the last place Sakura wanted to go right now. But where else could she go if she doesn't want to?

This was the first time Sakura headed home right after school. She had the habit to linger around in school by herself to self-study in the library or maybe passing the art galleries or the small garden at the backyard secretly.

_Extremely early_ Sakura commented to herself. _Shall start on that couple of math problems that I left undone in class._

Down the pavement, Sakura hardly saw anyone ahead of her. Other students often hang out at the mall and fast-food restaurants that were at the other side of the town after school to gossip who-knows-what.

But it was easy to guess that Sakura would have the highest chance out of the entire population in school to be inside of those juicy gossips they were going to spread later.

"_At least cry on my shoulder."_

Sakura jerked and stopped in her steps. Some unfamiliar feelings started to arouse around her chest area like it was burning. Even when Sakura clenched her fist and pounded onto her chest several times, the feeling still doesn't go away though.

After Sakura managed to calm down, Sasori silently brought her down from the rooftop to the almost empty corridor to sit on a resting bench while he called Pein who was just around the area too.

It was so much less awkward having another party to be with them, although Pein wasn't much help in trying to get Sakura to calm down when all those too-caring questions flooding out from him. Sakura understood Pein's sincerity that only appeared to people who he really cared about, but she really wished to be in silence like how Sasori had respected and gave it to her previously.

Itachi joined in a while later, and it only made Sakura even more miserable when she was again reminded of her old friends who were always with her in the past.

Even if it was indeed awkward, Sakura so much preferred having just Sasori alone for a companion. He doesn't need to give any words, he doesn't need those caring eyes and looks gazed at her. Sasori was just originally comfortable for her to be with when she was sad and alone, just like the same feeling whenever she was with the hotdog man.

Sakura took a step and continued her slow pace. The construction's entrance was soon spotted a few meters away from her and she naturally took larger and quicker steps just because she wanted to see her friend, to confirm with certain issues that she would like to clarify.

But the road was empty. There wasn't any usually funny and cute-looking hotdog mascot standing outside the entrance, holding onto a pile of flyers that hadn't been distributed much ever since he started work.

Mr. Sausage was not there like where he always was.

He's not where he should be.

He's not at the place where he had promised that he would always be there for her.

Sakura took one final step and stopped on her track again. She stared at the spot where the mascot would stand before glancing around slowly. Her eyes laid onto a few workers carrying heavy debris on their shoulders, but there's still no huge hotdog looking costume around anywhere.

"What am I expecting?" Sakura spoke aloud. "What am I even expecting from a person whose identity was still unknown to me?"

Sakura breathe hitched for a second as she brought a hand to cover half of her face. She took a deep breath, pushing those bad memories behind the back of her mind before straightening her posture.

"What am I expecting?" She repeated. This times her tone was much softer and doubtful.

Sakura took a hesitant step but she stopped to look back into the construction site to see if any giant hotdog running up to her. It might be because of the fact that he was released late from school and she had came too early today. Or maybe, it could be just because the hotdog doesn't want to see her. Simple.

The pinkette shook her head and continued her path down, not giving any last glance to see if anyone was approaching up to her at all.

"Weird." The construction worker raised a curious eyebrow, watching Sakura quickening her pace ahead. As the male worker patted on his yellow helmet and decided to head back to continue his work, the large mascot appeared right behind him.

"Whoa shit. Heart attack." The worker grabbed onto his chest and breathed hard exaggeratedly.

"Sorry if I surprised you." Sasori muffled inside the costume.

"It's fine." The worker waved his hand around before poking his head out from the entrance. He then turned back to look at that innocent looking hotdog.

"The pink-haired girl who often come around to talk to you just passed by. You might have missed her since she came here quite early than usual." The worker pointed down the pavement. "I wanted to stop her but she had walked away so suddenly."

Sasori wobbled awkwardly and stood ahead of the employee and faced the direction where the worker had pointed. At that spot, Sasori could already imagine Sakura's depressed back when she trudged back home.

Without saying any word, he plodded off, away from the site and to the direction where Sasori usually saw Sakura headed to.

"You sure you want to get her in that attire?" The worker shouted for him to hear.

Sasori paused for a moment and tried to look down at himself but it was quite impossible. He just waved the question off and continued walking without caring about his clothing or anything else.

_Who cares?_ Sasori thought as he staggered down the streets. _I have even worn this stupid costume to buy mayonnaise sauce before._

0o0

"Wait."

The loud heavy footsteps stopped and Sakura wondered why it had. Unless the fact that the owner of the footstep was calling out for her in the first place so that's why it had stopped. She turned around curiously and got a little shock for seeing the giant looking hotdog standing so close behind her.

"Mr. Sausage." Sakura blinked rapidly and took a few steps back. Everything that she was pondering on a few seconds ago immediately vanished and all her focus was onto the man standing in front of her.

"Hey." He gave a greeting.

Sakura took a closer step and stared at the mascot as she could hear soft pants behind the costume but her lips were sealed and nothing came out.

She wanted to say so much stuffs when she thought about meeting him today, yet when she finally saw him, she couldn't think of anything but perhaps feeling a little more anger and curiousness than usual.

"How was today?" Mr. Sausage started the conversation for the second time again.

"Pretty fine." She muttered, staring at the costume blankly. "If that's what you want to hear."

Sasori was taken aback.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Sausage questioned.

"I'm a slut, a whore. Those posters are my true self. I'm a fake who acts pity just to get friends. And I'm freaking sad and miserable. Are you guys happy now?" Sakura spat. She had absolutely no idea what was going on with her, but the fact that Mr. Sausage even suggested that conversation about how was her day when he was _probably_ at the scene completely outraged Sakura.

"Sakura…"

It was something Sasori had failed to remember that Sakura already knew _Mr. Sausage_ was from her school and that conversation he attempted to start hurt her feelings terribly, since it was indirectly mocking her even when he wasn't even planning to do so.

"I'm fine, really." Sakura raised her hand and took a step back. "I just need to yell, that's all."

"…"

"…"

"Are you really all right?" The mascot asked carefully.

"Yes I am." Sakura explained as she used her hand and gave a calm-down-I-am-really-fine gesture.

Sasori stared uncertainly.

"I don't have to worry." Sakura beamed. "I have great friends supporting me and I don't need anything else."

Sasori blinked at her smile that radiant so much even though he knew she was sad deep down. Either she was really happy about having them as her friends or she was really good at acting that even he himself had fallen for it.

The truth was that Sakura really wanted to ask the hotdog costume if he was really at that scene, mocking her along with the others but she just doesn't have the heart to do so. She once argued with Mr. Sausage over friendship and true identities and she doesn't want that to happen again.

So now, she promised to herself that from now on she would not care if he was either present or not present at the cafeteria back then. Sakura doesn't want to know who exactly Mr. Sausage was anymore. The hotdog man was great for being who he was now. Taking off that costume could risk the chance in destroying the very first friendship she had created since she had stepped into this town and Sakura doesn't want to lose her very first friend.

"Let's restart all the information we knew about each other, shall we?" Sakura stretched out her hand.

Sasori stared at it curiously, not understand what was she doing.

"From now on, you're not anyone but Mr. Sausage who gave out flyers for a job. While I'm a student who studies hard to get a even better job than you are having now." Sakura raised her two eyebrows childishly. "I'll just continue thinking that you're just 50 years old pedophile while you're just going to know me as a girl who has pink hair, nothing else."

"Pink-haired brat." The words slipped out from Sasori's mouth unintentionally but he didn't bother to apologize. He reached out for her hand and shook it firmly.

"Pedo-Sausage." Sakura stuck out her tongue as Sasori tried not to laugh at the worst nickname he had ever receive in his life.

It's funny to hear insults and pet names created by someone you love. Don't you think?

0o0

The sets of homework Sakura decided to do at Konan's house when she invited her over slipped from her fingers and floated slowly onto the floor.

"We heard your birthday was at the end of March and since we missed it, we decided to call for a surprise party for you to make up for it." Konan gave a little push as Sakura stumbled forward into the room filled with colorful streamers hung around the room. And there was Pein and Deidara, still blowing bright and colorful balloons at the corner of the room while the rest were sitting in a circle with gaps in between.

"Happy belated birthday yeah." Deidara smirked, tying the balloon and threw it at Sakura but it floated and landed on the floor instead.

"We owe you gifts." Kisame noted.

"But that would be a temporarily case." Konan added in.

_I've got my best birthday gift by having you guys celebrating it for me even when it's over._ Sakura thought happily, putting down her bag at the corner of the room while she sat right in front of the cake when Konan gestured her forward.

Sakura stared at the strawberry chocolate cake placing nicely on the table that was settled in the middle of the room. Bright pink icing that neatly stated "Happy Birthday Sakura!" on the white cream. She immediately recollected patches of memories on the actual day of her birthday when the still-mystery Sausage man prepared it for her.

But for now, he's a Pedo-Sausage and nothing else.

After singing the birthday song and blowing out the candles, Itachi randomly suggested a group photo for the memory they had now and everyone agreed. Sakura was still shocked at the suggestion the Uchiha made since it would be the first time she would get a group photo with her friends in this still-new town.

_So cool!_ Thoughts screaming in her head wildly yet she tried to keep herself composed and calm.

Kakuzu was forced to promise that he would get copies of the photo for everyone and he grudging agreed to it, mostly because Sakura was actually looking a little pleading in his way.

Homework and school-related matters were pushed aside and forgotten for a couple of hours and all they talked were about life and stuffs that greatly humored and made Sakura' cracked up a few times till her stomach hurts. Soon, time flies like it was just seconds and Sakura was still not rather willing to go off just yet before Itachi finished the story of Deidara's gender issues and Kisame's fish problems.

They could have stayed even until evening without realizing it if it wasn't for Konan's mum to ring her up and asked what she wanted for dinner around late afternoon.

When Sakura sat on Konan's bed and watched the rest cleaning up since the host ordered the pinkette to, she decided to speak out truthfully for once since she wanted to say it all out from the beginning already.

"I know everyone is trying to cheer me up due to the incident a few days ago…" Sakura stared at the rest of them who were cautiously staring at her from their position, but Sakura just broke into a huge smile.

"You guys are doing great at it."

A chorus of relief sighs echoed in the room as they awkwardly stared at each other and Sakura tried not to laugh at them for doing that.

"Thank you so much." Sakura bowed her head low and raised them up again, her eyes sparkling with tears of gratitude. "I don't know how could I ever expressed how thankful I felt for you guys."

"Be the person you always are." Konan suggested a way and patted on Sakura's shoulder

"Yeah." Hidan agreed and gave a thumbs up. "Just like that."

0o0

Sasori halted in the middle of the pavement and stared down the empty road before turning his head to another route that leaded the way back to his home.

"Guess we'll go on our separate ways now." Sakura shyly pointed forward.

It was early evening and everyone had left before Konan got grounded for having a party when there was school tomorrow. Sakura still hadn't finished her homework like what she had promised her mother for staying out after school, but it's not like Sakura's hadn't been rebellious before and she could do her homework during the bus ride or recess period.

"I have to accompany you." Sasori stated plainly as he stared at her with that usually lazy expression he used everyday.

"I will be fine." Sakura gave an assuring smile. "You don't have to accompany me all the way like what Konan said-"

"I want to." The redhead cut in.

Sakura's breath jerked for a second there.

Sasori took a slow step forward, indicating that they should start moving before Sakura could argue. But truthfully, she doesn't have any words to say to Sasori about telling him that she would really be fine walking to the stop alone.

Either she doesn't want to irritate Sasori about something he already decided on, or maybe she just wanted his company all along.

The same feeling she felt when she was alone with Itachi started resurfacing again; that familiar feeling of déjà vu. But it was even stronger than the Uchiha's.

They surely hadn't spent more than an hour a day even if they include their break time, yet Sakura felt as though she had spent her entire lifetime with him before. She felt so close, pleasant and secure with him; something that was lacked from the feelings she felt when she was with Itachi.

When a few gust of strong winds blew by, Sakura finally couldn't hang in there and let out a loud and embarrassed sneeze. She covered her nose and attempted to look at least lady-like but what she had done had ruined her image.

"You're cold." He wasn't asking a question and that's why Sakura doesn't know what to answer either.

Sasori tugged out his jacket's sleeve first before dusting it a few times and draped it carelessly around Sakura's shoulder.

"Eh?" Was all the pinkette's responded as she stared blankly at the warm clothing.

"I'm not cold. You can use it." He explained.

Sakura stared at the soft, pale red jacket over her shoulder before lifting her head to stare at the redhead who was walking at his unusually slow pace just to let Sakura's catch up with him, since she had stopped her tracks when she was still in shock at what Sasori did a few seconds ago.

She felt so warm all of the sudden. One reason could be because it was the jacket that kept her from being cold. Another reason could be because his simple caring words and actions had melted her heart.

"Thank you." She gave a yell that only he could hear.

Sasori just shrugged in return while Sakura jogged hastily and soon fell in steps with her least-interacted friend. They continued walking for a few seconds before an image of those familiar looking stops finally appeared after their long walk.

"There's the bus stop!" Sakura exclaimed like a child. Sasori's eyes were a little more focus as he stared ahead at the distance.

As they reached the sheltered area, they just awkwardly glanced around rather than meeting each other in the eye until Sakura heard a soft thunder afterwards.

"It's going to rain." She mumbled as both of them stared at the dark clouds that started hovering in the previously orange-lit sky. As soon as those words left Sakura's mouth, light drops of rain pattered on the ground before the rain got heavier and heavier every second.

"Will you be fine?" Sasori asked. His eyes were fixated on the dark clouds.

Sakura turned her head and stare at him in mild shock.

Although tears were unshed, Sakura felt as though her heart was crying at the amount of caring friends that were by her side, yet she had glanced past them and only focused and wanted the attention from people who doesn't give a damn about her.

Sakura wasn't lying to Mr. Sausage about how she felt about her new friends, but she just cared much more about those people who hated her, finding ways to have them to stop picking on her although she should just continue on her life normally like everyone else.

She had friends, friends who truly understand and treasured her even when they never showed it openly like what Konan did and one great example would be Sasori.

"I'll be fine." Sakura replied and nodded once, her emerald eyes still focusing on his handsome side view. "There's an underground passageway that can help me to avoid some rain."

Sasori turned to Sakura abruptly and their eyes met for a second, but he glanced away immediately and stared at the ground instead.

"Underground passageways are usually dangerous…" He murmured. Sakura couldn't help but notice the worry etched in his tone.

_How cute._ Sakura snickered in her mind.

"If that worries you, then I'll just call my mum to fetch me at the bus stop." Sakura neared her head towards Sasori's and showed an OK sign with her hand.

Sasori's eyes glittered for a second and those doubtful thoughts and feelings vanished immediately.

"It's you who we should be worrying about." Sakura changed the subject. "It's raining pretty heavily, are you sure you'll be all right?" She bit her lips and stared at Sasori who was staring ahead now.

"I can manage." He explained half-heartedly, his attention more onto the sound of the pattering rain.

Suddenly, sound of splashing water, a few soft horns and loud cats meowing could be heard far down the streets. As both of them lifted their head and stared at the direction, bright headlights flickered in the blur of raindrops.

"You bus is coming." He stated plainly.

Sakura nodded slowly in respond.

Sasori covered his head with his two hands and turned to stare at Sakura. Without saying anything, he made a dash into the rain.

"Bye!" Sakura yelled quickly when she got startled at his sudden movement. She saw him slowed down for a bit without glancing back, but he continued his fast pace after two or three seconds.

The bus finally came into view and Sakura put out her hand and waved for it to stop. She showed the driver her card after she board the bus and made her way to the back of the vehicle with the warm jacket still draped over her shoulder.

Two elderly couple was sitting at the front while another tired adult that had his tie loosened and suitcase sat seats away from her. Sakura tried to look out of the window to catch a glimpse of Sasori but of course, it was too late so she just remained quiet and stayed still on her cold seat.

After a while of staring into space, the old lady gave a soft sneeze and it caught Sakura's attention immediately. Her husband just patted lightly of his wife's back while the woman wrapped the scarf around her neck tighter.

She blinked at the old couple mesmerizingly before something dawned to her. Looking down, it was the jacket that Sasori had strapped around her shoulder when she was walking from Konan's house to the bus stop.

Sakura stared out at the passing streets through the window, and everything was all foggy and blurred due to the thunderous drops of rain beating onto the window of the bus. A sense of guilt took over her as she tugged onto the jacket closer to her body.

"Will he be cold?"

* * *

><p>Authors' note:<p>

A very short and quick chapter ): I'm so sorry for the lateness and poor quality of work presented to you after waiting for like a month..  
>REALLY! Thanks for the reviews, favorites and alerts that kept on motivated me to write! I'm really honored to have amazing people like you guys to read my stories and I hope you all could still support me although I'm starting to lose some confidence for this story to end up as successful like my other two completed SasoSaku stories :

I can't promise that I'll update soon, but reviews usually motivate me to, so... _Hints Hints_ :D


	6. He's mysterious and cool

Remember?

_He's mysterious and cool._

"Look here…" Sakura bit her lips.

"Here. Here. Here!"

As a classmate of Sasori's departed away from the redhead after discussing about some homework, Sasori casually looked down from the second floor and scanned around the vast of students that were pouring into the hallway.

"Here!" Sakura gave a wave.

Sasori widened his eyes as he spotted the casual pinkette making a huge wave at him.

Hidan, who was strolling back to his classroom that was just next to Sasori's chemistry class took notice of the redhead who was standing by the railing, ignoring everyone who knocked over his shoulder or bag that was slung over his back.

"Wow, that stick-in-ass didn't care that he was late for the first time." Hidan mumbled to himself. Right at the moment when he was about to shout for Sasori's name so they could at least walk back to class together, Hidan noticed that the redhead was staring intently at something, or someone.

Slowly following his gaze, it seemed that he was staring down at the first floor. Puzzled, Hidan moved to the railing that was surrounding the second floor to look down at the ground floor and immediately, he spotted pink.

Hidan squinted his eyes. When he realized it was really Sakura that he was staring at, and the fact that she was also staring back as well, he raised both eyebrows in surprise.

Sakura fished out the neatly folded jacket from her bag, raising it up and pointed at it.

Sasori glanced at the staircase that was right at the other side of him, he attempted to move towards it to get to Sakura, but the students were either blocking his way or going against the direction he wanted to go.

Wanting to reduce his burden, Sakura trudged towards the staircase, but she faced the same problems as what Sasori had and it was nearly impossible for them to reach each other

The turned to look at the other at the same time and Sakura shrugged helplessly while Sasori just turned away to stare at the stairways, as if he could teleport there anytime.

Sakura waved her arms to get his attention and apparently she did it successfully. As Sasori was looking right at her, waiting for her to do or say something, Sakura raised her hand and gave a five.

'_Fifth period.'_ Sakura mouthed, showing her five fingers to help Sasori to understand better. '_Right here.' _She then pointed on the ground she was standing.

Knowing what she meant, he put up an OK sign and in return, Sakura gave a thumbs up in politeness.

In a second, Sakura whirled around and started to hasten her steps towards her own class quickly.

"What the heck?" Hidan jaws dropped, watching unbelievingly at Sasori who had departed off to his class as well._ Is Sasori and Sakura making the boyfriend-girlfriend signals with each other? Because really, I don't understand a single fucking thing they are doing, yet they seemed to know each other as if they actually do, when they-._

"-Don't" Hidan spoke out loud and rolled his eyes, finding himself ridiculous for thinking about these things as he turned away and went back to his class as well.

0o0

And just like the, five whole boring periods of who-know-what passed by and Sakura was hurrying down the flight of stairs and running towards the place where she promised to meet Sasori before. She did hear from Deidara that Sasori detested waiting the most after all.

So the very first thing she did when Sakura finally reached Sasori was to shove the bar of chocolate onto his hand which was just by his side.

The chocolate bar almost slipped out of his hand when he got a rude shock from the sudden contact he received. Turning around abruptly to see who the hell did that to him, his eyes widened slightly when he faced a panting pinkette bending over while clutching onto her stomach.

"Are you alright?" Sasori asked.

"The chocolate…" Sakura took a deep breath, straightening her posture and exhaled. "It's an apology gift for being late."

"Hn." Sasori smirked as he stared at the chocolate in his hand amusingly, as if it was the funniest thing in the world. "Did Deidara badmouth about me?"

"Uh." Sakura blinked dumbly before she hurriedly opened her bag in order to move away from the current conversation. "Here's the jacket." She handed the folded jacket to him as he accepted it with he other hand that was not holding the chocolate.

"Thanks." Sasori tugged a little onto the jacket to spread it out before flipping it over his shoulder.

"I should be the one saying that." Sakura smiled, slightly mesmerized at how cool Sasori just hang the jacket over his shoulder so casually.

The redhead stared at her for a moment before glancing away awkwardly. Noticing it but decided not to question why, Sakura spoke again.

"I'll be going now." She pointed down the hallway with a few students strolling back to their next class. "See you during lunch." With a wave, she spun around and walked away without turning back.

Watching her retreating back, Sasori slowly raised his heavy hands and gave a small wave.

"See you."

…

"Boo!"

"Goddamn it-" Sasori turned to find his blonde friend smirking evilly at him after he had shouted into his ear. Irritated, the redhead flung his jacket right into his face before walking away.

"Did I scare you?" Deidara skipped towards Sasori in a dumb manner as they started syncing their steps together.

"Childish." Sasori gave an emotionless stare.

"You looked so focused that you didn't even notice my presence when I was standing beside you." Deidara turned back and glanced at the direction where Sasori was staring previously before looking back at his friend. "What are you looking at yeah?"

"It's none of your business."

"Whatever- Wait, when did this jacket appear? I didn't notice you bringing it to school." Deidara poked the jacket that was slung over Sasori's shoulder.

"I lent it to Sakura yesterday. She returned it to me a while ago." Sasori responded, only after a second then he realized he shouldn't have replied Deidara's question.

"So you are staring at Sakura!" Deidara exclaimed loudly as he slammed his hand onto Sasori's back.

Sasori scratched his back, annoyed. "Stop making up stories on your own."

"You know you shouldn't be lying to me because really, you suck at it terribly yeah."

"…"

"Are you interested in Sakura?"

Sasori halted as he turned to glare at Deidara.

"One more nonsense from you, and I swear you would never, ever, see your ponytail at the end of school."

"Shit, you know my weak point too." Deidara stepped a few steps back. "Alright, I'll stop pissing you off. But sometimes, all you got to do is to open your heart and-"

The blonde started running right when Sasori took out a large scissors from the side pocket of his bag and nearly shove it to his face as a warning again.

0o0

Sakura sighed in relief while she set her bag on the table, taking in a few deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down from brisk walking back to class.

"Where did you go?" Konan looked up from her phone under the table.

"I went to return Sasori's jacket since he lent me his yesterday. Luckily the teacher hasn't arrived yet." Sakura placed her bag on her seat so she could lie comfortably on it.

"Did you say that Sasori lent you his jacket?" Konan raised a questioning eyebrow, putting her phone back into her pocket as all her attention was onto the pinkette beside her. "I may have misheard something."

"No. That was what I said." Sakura replied cautiously.

Konan's eyes widened, as if she had heard that her origami collection were burnt away. "That is so un-Sasori." She tried to speak calmly.

"Really?" Sakura didn't know what to say.

"From the past few years since I know him, he never did something for anyone." Konan shook her head. "How do I phrase this? He- I think he trusts you."

"How does lending me his jacket made you think that he trusted me?" Sakura still doesn't get what Konan was implying.

"Acting like an asshole is how he shows that he treated you as his friend. But the level of sharing something and being kind to someone, he never do that to anyone I know before."

Sakura stared at her table seriously.

"If I have to arrange them according to their level of experience in romantic issues, Sasori and Kakuzu would be the last." Konan explained.

"Romantic?" Sakura blinked, having no idea of where this conversation was going.

"What do you think of him?" Konan spoke in an angelic voice that she always used.

"What?" The pinkette sounded utterly surprise. "What I think... of him? Why the sudden question?"

"I don't know." Konan shrugged as she took out her phone and went back tapping furiously on her phone screen.

Sakura knew Konan was hiding something from her when she suddenly avoided the topic. Before the pinkette could question her again, the teacher just had to arrive at that moment.

The pinkette sighed inwardly as she slumped into her seat. _Finding a way to get us back to this topic would be hard. Now I'll never get any chance to know the real answer at all._

0o0

"Is something bothering you?" Mr. Sausage stood right in front of Sakura who was leaning against the brick wall.

"I was thinking of what my friend had said." Sakura mumbled.

"Who?" Sasori tried not to sound surprise as he handed a flyer to a woman who just walked past them.

"Konan." Sakura remained staring on the ground. "Well, she asked me what do I think of this guy…"

"Who?" He repeated.

"You sound like an owl." Sakura lifted her head and giggled.

Mr. Sausage lightly slapped the flyers onto Sakura's shoulder, not in annoyance but somehow in amusement at the joke she directed to him.

"Alright, alright." Sakura backed away.

"Who is it?" Mr. Sausage went back asking, being even more curious than ever.

"He's mysterious and cool." Sakura gave a small smile as her eyes became distant. "You can say he's someone who got my most attention even though we rarely talk much with each other in school."

As Sasori started to think back, Sakura hardly associated much with Itachi at all. And really, even Sasori sometimes thought that the Uchiha brat was quite mysterious and cool.

_Could she be referring to Itachi?_

"So." Mr. Sausage paused for a moment. "Do you like him?"

Sakura blinked rapidly as she stared incredulously at Mr. Sausage. "I'm not really thinking if I like him or not." She lifted her head and stare at the clear blue sky with a few clouds drifting by. "I'm just wondering what did I do to make Konan think that I might like him."

"Oh…"

Sakura frowned and started dusting her feet on the ground. "Well, no use in pondering on questions that would never get an answer." Sakura's face brightened up when she lifted herself away from the brick wall and stood straight on her own. "I got a job."

If Sasori could raise his eyebrows any higher, he would have. "What is it?"

"A cashier at a family mart just opposite the busiest shopping centre in town." Sakura scratched her chin. "Starting around five in the late afternoon until eight in the evening."

"How did you get the job?"

"The cashier was having a tight schedule around this time, so she casually asked if I'm interested to take her shift for the month. Since I clearly have nothing to do, I accepted it." Sakura gave a cocky grin. "I could get some quick cash so I can save up and buy some clothes if I have time for shopping."

_Girls._ Sasori amusingly shook his head in the mascot.

"I should be going now." Sakura took out her phone to see the time.

"Alright." Mr. Sausage flapped the flyers.

"Bye, I'll see you tomorrow." Sakura gave a wave as she kept her phone in the pocket and turned away.

The plump hotdog lifted its arm and gave a short wave before putting it down. Watching Sakura walking off calmly down the streets, the redhead decided that he should get back to work.

0o0

Sasori was already done with arranging his costume and placing them neatly in the cabinet before he proceeded out of his workplace. Being nice and polite like he often was without Deidara's presence, he approached to the crowd of resting workers who were sitting around a radio with cups of coffee in their hand to bid a goodbye.

To Sasori's surprise, they weren't tapping their feet and going according to the beat of the music they were hearing. Instead, they were listening attentively to a news report over the radio.

"…Around ten minutes ago, there's an accident that occurred at a family mart which is located opposite of the most busiest shopping mall in town. The accident involved having a van colliding into the family mart, resulting in three people severely injured. Currently, Paramedics are on their way to the scene as there is a very heavy-jam taking place outside the mall. I'm Lisa, reporting live from the scene of the accident."

That was what Sasori heard.

"These days people drive so carelessly." A strong-built man shook his head and set his cup on the table.

"What is the time now?"

The workers turned to see Sasori, standing right behind them. Surprised, one of them asked. "Haven't you knocked off yet, Sasori?"

"I have." He muttered calmly before repeating his question again. "What is the time now?"

"Fifteen minutes past five. What's wrong?"

With a quick turn, Sasori dashed out of the site before anyone could stop him. But none of them would anyway after they had witnessed a sign of emotions in his eyes, which proved that he was shocked to hear the answer to his unusual question. When they stared at the back of the running teenager, everyone started to feel some uneasiness as they were all wondering what was going on.

0o0

"Sakura…"

Loud horns and sound of sirens could be heard ahead. With a boost in speed, Sasori managed to reach the scene before the trucks had the car and everything towed away.

Sprinting across the road after looking left and right for any cars, Sasori started jogging on the spot to cool himself down when he reached a massive crowd right outside of the accident site. Still not able to see what was happening, he jumped up high in the air a couple of times but failed miserably.

As he got more impatient, he started squeezing through the crowd despite the fact that most people were clicking their tongue in annoyance at him for his rude behavior but the redhead did not give a damn about it. After pushing his way through, all he saw in front of him was a paramedic applying CPR to a young lady who was unconscious on the ground while the other colleague were carrying the two other casualties into the ambulance. The thing was, none of them had pink hair.

"Sakura…" Sasori glanced around the crowd of people before following one of the paramedics who was pushing the stretcher trolley into the ambulance. There were no other victim inside the van other than the two of the people who he seen earlier.

When Sasori was back in daze again with all sorts of thoughts clouding in his mind, he could feel a small tap on his shoulder as he slowly turned to see who the hell disturb him from his thoughts. Just when the color pink was the last color he thought he would see, it was none other than Sakura standing behind him with that surprise look on her face.

"Sasori?" Sakura exclaimed in surprise.

Before Sakura could question his presence, Sasori grabbed onto Sakura shoulder and started scrutinizing her from head to toe. She was already in her job attire, but she had no scratches or bruises anyway on her arms or face.

"I was worried." He emphasized with a stern frown. "When I first heard the news on the radio, I don't know what to do but to run, to run here to see if you are safe."

"You could say I was lucky." Sakura afforded a smile, not even feeling a slightest bit of discomfort even when Sasori's hands were on her shoulder.

"Excuse me." A reporter brushed past Sakura, following closely behind the reporter was the cameraman who almost knocked into the pinkette if it was not for Sasori who had pulled her away just in time.

Realizing their distance within each other was too close, they mindlessly took a few steps back as they watched the reporter giving a live report right in front of the family mart.

"I've missed my bus, so I had to wait for the next one." Sakura continued from where she had left previously. "When I went backdoors to get changed I heard a crash. I ran out to see what happened and the car was already stuck right in the mart." She turned to look at the wreck state of her workplace for the last time.

Sasori gave an inward sigh, removing his hand away from Sakura. Although his features softened, he was having this faraway look he usually gave in school. "I'm really glad you're fine-"

"But wait…" Sakura gave a slight pause as she slowly turned to stare at Sasori, but he didn't wait for Sakura to finish her sentence, neither does he care about the weird look Sakura was directing to him.

"-I was so worried that you're the one that got hurt…"

"Sasori."

"-What if something happened to you?" His words were slowly turning into a whisper.

"Sasori!" Sakura snapped her fingers in front of his face, pulling him back to reality. He was so deep in thought that Sakura knew she had to shout his name in order to get his attention.

"Sakura?" He spoke, a little surprise that Sakura had called his name so loudly.

Knowing that she had got his fullest attention, Sakura started to speak in a challenging tone. "The only person I've told about this job was Mr. Sausage. Not even my mother knew about it." Sakura gave a slow pause. "So how did you know I'm working here?"

For the first time, Sakura could correctly predict what was Sasori thinking at that moment even when he was giving this sort of funny expression that Sakura found it hard to describe.

_Oh. Shit._

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

Please don't kill me for the cliffhanger and how long you all have to wait just for this chapter!  
>Thank you so so much with the sweet reviews, if I have time, I'm definitely going to reply all of you back. I felt guilty for not even saying a personal thanks to everyone for your countless support for me. Thank you!<br>_Edit: Oh yeah! I have made a new poll, regarding if you're interested in reading more stories that are not just SasoSaku, but other pairings such as DeiSaku, AkaSaku, NaruSaku and other couples that I like. If you don't mind, please go to my profile to take the poll! :)_


	7. Makes my heart race

Remember?

_Makes my heart race_

"Tag, you're it!"

A couple of kids started running after one another, a few nearly tripped along the way but that didn't stop them from trying to catch their opponents.

Both Sakura and Sasori who needed the peace decided they should go to this playground not far away from the wreck store and settled down to talk.

"It's true that I'm in the wrong by hiding my identity all these while." Sasori sighed, leaning against the bench chair and stared up at the orange cloudy sky. "But I was afraid that you'll reject me like how you rejected both Deidara and I the other day."

"You mean… that time with the girls?" Sakura stared at Sasori in shock.

Sasori solemnly nodded.

"I wasn't rejecting at you guys! Well… maybe I am but it was because I thought you two are the types who just wanted to win my trust over by sympathizing me and then play with my feelings before dumping me." Sakura gave a worried look, hoping Sasori would understand her like how she wanted him to. "But I was wrong in the end."

"You're quite creative. You should write a novel."

"Quit that teasing!" Sakura huffed as she crossed her arms childishly. Sasori just lightly chuckled with the back of his hand covering his mouth like a gentlemen. Sakura merely opened one of her eyes and gave a sidelong glance at the chortling redhead, and to find herself slowly smiling too. She had never seen the redhead so happy; smiling and laughing so carefree before.

'_Ta dum'_

Sakura blinked as she brought her hand to her chest and looked down.

_Did my heart just skipped a beat?_

"I didn't mean to hide from you. But I felt that keeping my identity was far much better than revealing it to you." His laughter slowly died down as his face turned impassive and emotionless again. "But since the cover is blown, I have no idea what excuse should I use to keep it a secret anymore."

"I could have guessed it much earlier," Sakura responded, putting her hand back to her side as she started playing with the hem of her job's clothes, trying to ignore why her heart was still racing when she was witnessing Sasori laughing, "but I was kind of stupid."

Sasori raised an eyebrow.

"On my birthday, I received a box fill with origami. And right after that, Konan mentioned that you folded origami before and Hidan even laughed at you about it." Sakura paused for a moment. "And you knew about my hiding spot since I only told Mr. Sausage about it, that was why you have found me so easily before I can even spend more than ten minutes to cry by myself."

"I hope you still remember that you're not suppose to cry the next time you go up the roof again." Sasori reminded her with a slight humor tone.

"I'll try." She gave an earnest smile. "I mean it."

A silence soon ensued as the both stared at the kids playing merry-go-round and another group building a sand castle on the sand pit beside a swing. But in a split second, something had caught Sakura's attention to spark off the words she was going to say and she doesn't know what either.

"Actually, I never thought you would be Mr. Sausage." Sakura spoke truthfully. "You are so different in school, and here…"

Sasori scoffed and shook his head slightly before focusing his attention back on the couple of children still running around the playground. "Actually, I don't know why too."

"But it's alright. I'm perfectly fine with it." Sakura nodded her head. "You're still the Sasori I know and no matter who you are, you're still my friend."

"I guess so." Sasori mumbled, staring at his feet as he kicked up some sand from the ground.

"Is there something you want to say?" Sakura asked, noticing how uneasy Sasori felt after he shifted in his sitting position for a couple of times.

"Yeah, actually." Sasori cleared his throat. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, anything." Sakura pounded her chest with a fist. "You can count on me."

Sasori smiled weakly. "It's pretty simple. Don't tell anyone that I'm Mr. Sausage who gives out flyers." He sighed and shook his head, realizing how immature his friends were that he even had to request such a thing from Sakura.

"They'll never let me live through a day in peace once they know about my job."

0o0

"Hello!" Sakura skipped towards Sasori who was tidying his stuff in his lockers. The redhead gave a glance at the girl standing happily next to him.

"Good morning." He calmly said before he continued arranging his books.

Sakura smiled excitedly as she wanted to share things she always talked about with Mr. Sausage. "Today, there was a-"

"Hi beautiful." Hidan suddenly appeared right beside the pinkette as his hands went straight for her butt and gave a tight squeeze.

"Eck!" Sakura shrieked and naturally, she turned around and gave a solid punch to his stomach before anyone could even react to her yell.

"Whoa, fuck." Hidan groaned as he clutched tightly onto his abdomen area and gave a soft wince. "You're strong for a small girl like you." He started rubbing his stomach painfully.

Sasori just silently watched the commotion between the two of his friends.

"I may have a talent in strength though." Sakura stared at her fist blandly before shooting a glare at the man standing beside her when she realized they were going off topic. "But serves you right. Next time don't you ever do that again."

"Alright, I have learnt my lesson." Hidan raised his hands in defense before he went back rubbing his stomach. "Damn, luckily it wasn't in the crotch area or I would have died."

Sakura smirked playfully as the two of them started their own conversation, giving Sasori the peace to keep his books in place and also to ponder on certain issues that were going on in his head.

0o0

"Give me a punch." Mr. Sausage threw the stack of flyers to the side of the pavement and raised both of his hands up. "Show me what you got."

Sakura inclined her head to a side and watched Sasori with curious. But nonetheless, she threw her bags and books aside, preparing her awkward stance and gave a hit like what Sasori had asked her to.

"You're not showing your demonic-self." He drawled.

"What?" Sakura scoffed in dismay as she narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me but can you repeat the part about showing my_ what_ self?"

"De-Mo-Nic."

Forehead was the last straw. No one ever called her _demonic _before.

Sakura strike fast and hit Sasori's hand with power. He took a step back but he still kept his balance as Sakura stuck out her tongue at him when she realized Sasori was caught off guard.

"Not bad."

"Don't ever call me that again." Sakura pouted.

Sasori gave a light chuckle as he brought his plump, brown and fluffy hand towards Sakura's shoulder.

"I'm kidding." He stopped and stared at Sakura who was still having that small unpleasant pout. "I was just trying to show you that you could be a strong person if you want to."

Sakura blinked in surprise as her lips parted, not really getting what Sasori was saying.

"Show your other side to the people who treats you insignificantly. This is the only way to tell them you aren't as weak as they thought you are." Sasori placed his hand back to his side. "That way, they will respect you and wouldn't dare to bully you again. Just like the incident with Hidan."

The pinkette grinned as she started cracking her knuckles. She had never felt so motivated in her life at wanting to punch something before. Maybe the name _Hidan_ did help to trigger the temper she was holding back all along.

Seeming to understand what was she implying, Sasori lifted up both of his hands and made a few gestures to hint her to attack.

"Come."

"Right on." Sakura's smirk grew wider as she started attacking by punching her fist into Sasori's hand without using her exact full strength. Although she wished she could, but the last thing she wanted on earth would be hurting Sasori.

A few workers inside the construction site even stopped their work and stared at the moments between the two of them.

"They are quite cute, don't you guys think?"

0o0

"History is fucking boring. I don't understand why would someone even want to get a job as a history teacher." Hidan scratched the back of his hair and yawned.

"What is the next period?" Pein asked as he turned to the redhead.

"Chemistry." Sasori droned.

"Time to make another explosion." Deidara smirked, while the others just rolled their eyes.

They slowly passed by the rows of lockers and approaching the stairs to get back to their class. But as soon as they were about to make a turn, they noticed a small commotion happening at the other end of the corridor.

"Isn't that Sakura?" Deidara paused and narrowed his eyes.

"Pink. It's her." Pein frowned in displeasure.

"Fuck. They must be bullying her again." Hidan snarled as he rolled up his sleeve and marched forward but he was stopped before he could take another step.

"Don't." Sasori blocked Hidan from moving forward.

"What the shit? Can't you see that she needs help?" Hidan pointed out the obvious.

"Wait," He calmly said, turning to face the chaos ahead, "and look."

The other three glanced at each other before staring at the redhead with a curious look. Knowing that Sasori always does things with a reason, they decided to listen to him; even Hidan.

"Shouldn't you apologize for knocking into me?" A boy who was a head taller than Sakura glared down at the pinkette and growled. "Pick up my books too, you pink bitch."

Sakura, who was staring at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing in the world didn't move at all. She just stood there, with her bag and books all over the floor too.

"Didn't you hear him? Apologize!" His friends jeered.

After a long silence, Sakura finally responded.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"What? I can't hear you." The guys started laughing as they neared their ears towards Sakura. Many other students who were strolling back to their class had stopped to stare at the fun too.

"I said I'm sorry," Sakura gave a short pause as she looked up at the bully who had his face just a few inches away, "because you probably wouldn't be able to celebrate any father's day at the moment."

In a second, Sakura lifted her legs and gave a swift, powerful kick at his groin area and a huge punch over the face.

"Fuck you!" The guy cried out as he stepped back. His friends managed to support him from behind and prevented him from falling. He groaned and slowly regained his balance while holding onto his bleeding nose and his crotch as he wailed and moaned for a few seconds before he raised his head slowly, and dangerously.

"Fuck, fuck you!" The pinkette didn't even cringed or step back at the harsh glare the man was directing at her.

"Thanks but no thanks." Sakura rolled her eyes and snorted. "Go fuck yourself instead."

"You damn bitch…" The man whimpered in pain again, his face was all scrunched up in agony.

Sakura bent forward and picked up her own books as she slung her bag over her shoulder casually and smiled brightly at everyone. "Would anyone else like to knock into me and ask me to pick up your belongings?"

The other guy friends stared timidly at each other and quickly carried their friend away after picking up his belonging without looking back. Soon, everyone along the corridor also started whispering to each other or walking hastily back to their class, offering glances over their shoulders once in a while to stare at Sakura with terrified or surprise emotion in their eyes.

Soon, everything went back to normal.

"You go girl!" Hidan gave a light shove on Sakura's shoulder as she turned around in surprise to find her three guy friends standing behind her.

"I have never felt so great before." Sakura calmly spoke, turning her attention to her fist instead as she cracked a smile.

"You showed them!" Deidara cheered as if he just witnessed his favorite football team scored a goal. "You should do that to everyone who bullies you yeah."

"I agree. That way, they wouldn't treat you like the way they always do." Pein nodded.

Hidan and Deidara started to form their own conversation about how kick-ass Sakura was previously, with Pein just staring blankly at them. As Sakura slowly drifted away from their exchange, she mindlessly glanced at the row of lockers to find the redhead leaning against one of them with his arms crossed and a small smirk plastered on his face.

'_You did great.'_ Sasori mouthed his words.

Sakura slowly gave a proud look and smiled, as if it was the first time she did.

'_Thank you.'_

0o0

Sakura propped her head on the palm of her hand as she casually flipped the magazine on her bed, with her legs swinging in the air and stomach facing down.

A few months had passed faster than Sakura could even blink. Exams were just over and now she was relaxing on a Saturday afternoon, browsing through some magazine she bought after she came back from buying groceries so she wouldn't get too bored staying at home alone.

"Hmmm…" The pinkette stared at a few pictures of some dresses and decided to turn to the next page after checking the price when she knew she could never get the money to buy.

Unintentionally, Sakura would start to create random songs with her own lyrics in them that she even cracked up laughing at her horrible song she made on the spot. But for the past fifteen minutes, she still hasn't realized what she was singing for this particular song at all.

"Sa-Sa-Sasori, Sa-Sa-Sasori~" Sakura sang merrily as she continued turning the pages after reading the gossip column. Only when she had reached the horoscope section then she realized what she was saying all these while.

"Sa-Sa-Sasori, Sa-Sa-Saso-!" Sakura immediately sat up straight as she stared ahead with both of her emerald eyes wide. She shook her head roughly and slapped both of her cheeks repeatedly to make herself much more awake.

"What the hell am I doing?" Sakura blinked repeatedly as she casually stared down at the magazine. Under the horoscope section, there was something that caught her attention.

**Are you in love? Take this quiz to find out!**

"Don't tell me..." She softly muttered before she went back to her lying down position. Sakura gulped and slowly moved her eyes down the page and dared herself to look at the very first question.

_1: Does his name appears in your mind before you even realize it?_

She widened her eyes and flushed a little as she quickly grabbed a pen that was coincidentally on her bedside table and circled the answer that caused her embarrassment.

"(C). Yes, I even wrote his name all over my book/sing his name out loud."

.

.

_15: Does your heart beats fast when you watch him nearing towards your direction?_

Sakura remembered a few incidents when her heart would start to beat fast when she spotted the redhead, approaching towards her direction during lunch and after school when she was hanging out with Konan. She gulped once again and uncapped her pen to circle her answer.

"(A) Often till I lost count."

Realizing she had actually finished the entire quiz, she looked at the bottom of her magazine and went to calculate her points before she spotted the category that fitted her.

25-30 points  
><em>Prepare yourself for a lovesick ride because you're definitely in love!<em>

Sakura gasped as she stared horrified at the answer before she automatically rolled herself out of her bed and ran towards her bookshelf. She grabbed the entire magazines she bought for the year and sat on the floor while leaning on the bookcase, looking through the sections to see if there were more quizzes she could take to confirm her question.

**How to know if you're in love? Take the quiz!**

**.**

**Is he/she the person you want? Find out more after you take the quiz!**

**.**

**Fallen in love? Check it out yourself by taking the quiz below!**

"Goddamn it." Sakura muttered, throwing the last magazine she had off her lap as she curled herself in to a ball, wrapping her two arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knee. She tried to laugh at her silly thoughts but all she could do was to crackle in an awkward laughter before she decided she should just say the truth, even if no one was around to hear.

"I'm in love." She recalled all the high marks she got after she took the quiz. She knew she shouldn't be trusting these childish quizzes, but she just couldn't help it.

Sakura shook her head and naturally turned to stare at the framed up photo, which she took when she was celebrating her belated birthday at Konan's house. Slowly, Sakura stifled a laugh as she rested her forehead on her knees.

"Even looking at him in the photo makes my heart race."

* * *

><p>Author's note:<p>

ASDFGHJKL SHORT CHAPTER! D: But I hope you guys still like it :x

Just wanna ask all my beautiful readers out there. How do you guys even know if you're in love?  
>I'm sorry for not being able to reply to all my reviewers that reviewed my previous chapter but I'll make sure I'll do that as soon as possible!<p> 


	8. He's my first friend

Remember?

_He's my first friend._

_Sakura,_

_Pein has a dental appointment at a clinic across the mall and I have to accompany him right after school ends.  
>He can be a crybaby, sometimes, when not one is looking.<br>So I have a small request and I need you to help me.  
>Could you count the numbers of shuttlecocks left in the equipment room? I need to know the amount by today.<br>Reason is confidential._

_Love you lots, Konan_

Sakura stared and caressed the piece of wrinkled paper over and over again and stared at the request that Konan wanted her to do

…_count the number of shuttlecocks left…  
>Reason is confidential.<em>

She shook her head, stuffing the note she found in her backpack into her locker and closed it. Sakura doesn't mind doing the request for her friend, but counting the number of shuttlecocks… She just felt something fishy was going around here.

_To me beloved Sasori,_

The said man crumpled the side of the note immediately

_I have a super, duper, very, extremely, important secret to tell you.  
>It's about my penis growth.<br>Meet me at the equipment room right after school._

_Deidara_

Sasori tossed the letter right into the nearest bin he could find. Were Hidan and Deidara trying to make fun of him? Obviously he knew that none other than Hidan wrote the scrawny letter. But nonetheless, he still decided to entertain his friend's nonsense.

He had time to spare after school before his mascot job starts.

0o0

"108…109…110…"

Each shuttlecock that was taken and counted was placed into another box Sakura found at the corner of the room. She had rushed straight to the equipment room right after school so she could go back home earlier to do her geometry homework.

"Sakura?"

"Sasori." The pinkette grinned and watched the redhead entering the small room with his bag slung over his shoulder. He looked around for a moment before staring down at what Sakura was doing.

Still couldn't guess what on earth was Sakura doing, he asked her, to only get a surprising reply. Afterwards, he commented that Konan always acted weird and crazy sometimes every year.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura glanced over her shoulder at the redhead who was leaning against a piling stacks of net bags filled with basketballs.

"Hid-"

Before Sasori could finish his sentence, the metal door immediately swung outwards and it slammed itself shut.

"Eck!" Sakura nearly died in fright when the door just loudly slammed shut. In a second, she began jumping over the boxes and started banging on the door. "We're still inside!"

Sasori narrowed his eyes and approached to the metal door, following Sakura and started to bang on the door.

"Are we going to be trap forever?" Sakura gasped at Sasori.

Sasori stared at her for a moment before looking suspiciously at the door. He then signaled Sakura to step back. As she did what she was told to, Sasori grabbed two plastic chairs and placed it side by side before gesturing the pinkette to sit. Puzzled, she just did what she was told.

"Why aren't you trying to call for help?" Sakura whispered harshly as they both sat right next to each other.

"It's obvious." Sasori pricked his nails lazily before pointed his thumb at the door. "They are trying to set us up."

Sakura scratched her chin and narrowed her eyes at the door. Her eyes then trailed underneath the door, watching the shadow of a few people standing right outside of the equipment room. "You're right. I was set up by Konan…" She gave a wondering look over at Sasori.

"Hidan and Deidara."

"Kinda guessed it." Sakura gave a pitiful look before a frown appeared on her face. "But why are they doing this?"

"They like to exaggerate things." Sasori scoffed. "You should know them well."

Sakura gave a soft giggle and nodded in agreement.

"Might as well give them some punishment by letting them stand outside the door like some retards while we'll be sitting here and enjoying small talks." He smirked.

"Yeah." Sakura beamed as she eagerly straightened her shirt and turned her body so she was facing him instead. "I've been wanting to tell you something for the longest time and since now there's the chance…"

Sasori gave an attentive look, his ears all ready to listen.

"After all these while, I still think Deidara looks like a girl."

0o0

"Now I understand why Sasori fucking hates waiting." Hidan grabbed onto Deidara's wrist and check the digital numbers on the blonde's watch. "They are still inside for the past twenty minutes."

"Shut it." Konan gritted through her teeth, shooting a glare at Hidan's direction. She placed her ears on the door and closed her eyes so she could focus more.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"So?" Deidara broke the silence.

"I can't hear anything." Konan impassively straightened her posture and trailed her finger down the door before looking at Pein. "I think we should get this door if we get married."

"Konan." Hidan gave a look. "This isn't the fucking time."

"I'm not talking to you." She spat.

"Quiet down yeah." Deidara swatted his hand in between the soon-to-be fighting duo.

0o0

"Actually," Sakura looked down at her feet while wriggling her toes in her shoe, "do you like someone?"

Sasori's head immediately shot up. Even though the room was dim-lit and the only light source was from the small window at the corner of the room, Sakura could make out the surprise expression in Sasori's eyes; perhaps even surprise when Sakura question her about how he knew about her cashier job a few months ago.

The redhead studied Sakura for a few seconds that she got a little uncomfortable. She started to squirm in her seat and rubbing her knees together.

"Why the question?" He suddenly responded.

"If you actually like someone else…" Sakura glanced at the door, watching the shadows of her four other friends' shadow underneath the door and turned back to Sasori, "I can tell them to stop this."

He glanced away and watched the shadows for a very long time until Sakura decided that she should continue. "Like you said, based on their obvious actions in wanting us to get together, it would be pointless if you don't like me and-"

"Then what about you?" Sasori interrupted. His elbow was propped on his knee as he clasped his hand together and formed a bridge to rest his chin.

"Me?" Sakura looked aback.

"Yes, you." He drawled. The pinkette noticed that he wasn't in the mood to kid around when he was being straightforward and not entertaining her stupid question by giving some teasing remarks like he usually does.

"I-I…" Sakura stuttered and a light blush soon tinted her cheeks. She closed her eyes tightly and hung her head low.

Sasori gave a sidelong glance and raised an eyebrow. He had never seen Sakura so flustered before.

"Yes I do." She finally replied.

"Oh."

"Yeah…"

"…"

"…"

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut once again. Why did she start such a stupid and idiotic conversation? She groaned inwardly and mentally reprimanded herself.

"Ever thought of confessing to him?"

She opened her eyes and stared at Sasori. His eyes were dull at the moment.

"Nah." She gave a lighthearted laugh.

"Why not?" He was slowly giving a disapproving frown.

"Most people say that it's forbidden to be in love with your best friend."

"Best…friend?" Sasori gave a dumb look. _Konan?_

_Take the first step, Haruno Sakura. Who cares about rejection? __Who cares? __Who… would care?_

She swallowed, her eyes darting left and right and as every second ticked by, she was getting more flustered and agitated.

_Should I… say it?_

Sakura bit her lips. She glanced briefly at Sasori who was still staring at her with those patient eyes he only gave to Sakura.

_Konan was trying to set us up, she's giving me a chance to say. She knew… She knew I like him… But, how…_

"He's my first friend." The words just came out without even thinking twice. She gave a small gulp and decided to continue. "A hot dog restaurant flyer started the friendship, but yet it slowly starts to grow into something, a feeling I don't want to forget forever."

His mahogany-colored eyes widened almost as big as a ping-pong ball.

"What about you?" Sakura turned her head and gave a light smile.

"Saku-"

"What about you?" She repeated, her voice a little hoarse.

She was still radiating that bright smile. Sasori could tell it was all just a cover. Even without the light to see her tears that she was begging not to fall from her eyes, the redhead could sense how hurt she was feeling now, even when she hadn't even hear his answer.

He sighed and gave that awkward and polite smile he always gave to teachers that were talking to him about his good academics. "You know my greatest weakness. Don't you dare to cry right here."

"Who says I'm crying?" Sakura was still having that big smile on her face, which grew creepier as every second goes by.

He didn't bother to argue with her and just leaned against the chair and stared ahead into blank space.

"She's my first friend who has this unique hair color," He calmly spoke as he turned back and gave a weak smile, "when I witnessed a group of girls bullying her, something just tells me that she is the one who I'm going to protect and love forever."

With that hideous grin still plastered on her face, Sakura couldn't help it but blinked. A tear immediately rolled down her cheeks as that smile she was showing slowly faded away.

The only thing that was breaking the silence was the soft sniffing coming from Sakura. Her mouth was just opening and closing like a stupid goldfish.

"What on earth…"

A soft chortle escaped from his lips. Sasori immediately placed the back of his hand to cover the soft snickering he was producing. In just split second, his other hand was on his stomach, clutching in pain as he continued chuckling.

"What is so fun-" Sakura's sentence was unfinished and she became to smile unintentionally. And soon, a giggle suddenly escaped from her lips and she began crackling into fits of laughter too.

They started chortling, louder and louder every second. Sakura had no idea why Sasori was laughing, but the scene that he was smiling and laughing so happily, it just made her happy as well.

At the corner of her eyes, she noticed the shadows outside the equipment room moved and she froze right away. She immediately scooted her chair nearer beside Sasori even though they were previously just inches apart.

"Shhhh!" She placed one of her finger onto Sasori's lips. He blinked in surprise, his laughter died down and he swiftly glanced at where Sakura was focusing her attention on before realizing what was happening.

The shadow was still moving, so Sakura still remained in that position and refusing to move as she feared that being the klutz she always was, she would create a wreckage whenever she wanted things to happen the other way.

Her chest was almost touching Sasori's arm and their face was just inches apart. Although Sakura's eyes were staring intensively on the shadows, she could sense that Sasori was staring at her instead. Slowly moving her eyes, her bright emerald pupils was immediately locked with both of Sasori's dark-chocolate colored eyes that were staring intensively at her.

"Sa-Sasori?"

Sakura was brave, in his opinion, to actually take the step to confess, it was a brave move from a girl like her. He always had to go through Deidara's scolding and being insisted to show more bright smiles whenever they were walking down the corridor. The reason why he was forever single was because the girls in school were all afraid of the redhead. Even with his good looks, his sharp glares often scared them away.

So this time, he decided to take first step, the first move and slowly moved closer. This didn't happen to him before, but it just came naturally, like the right timing. Sakura just remained in that position, her eyes were slowly closing automatically.

Right on the cue, their lips finally touched and Sakura slowly moved her finger away and instead shifted her hand and drive it into Sasori's soft and messy hair. She opened her eyes, wanting to see if everything of this was even true. Indeed, right before her was Sasori, closing his eyes and sharing his passionate moments with her. Just her, alone.

As Sakura slowly closed her eyes and took her time to savor the moment, she could feel a light shiver running down her spine as he pressed back his lips onto hers. It was surprising that Sasori, this redhead Sasori, would be so tender, warm… yet so demanding at the same time.

Inwardly, Sakura was enjoying every part of it. While on the other hand, the redhead was grateful for the romance movie Konan often forced the gang to watch almost every weekend.

0o0

"If they are having sex right now, I would fucking tear down my bedroom door and replace with this one, because this damn door is super efficient in trapping sounds." Hidan growled and moved his ear away from the door. "Are they mother-fucking dead in there? It's totally silent!"

Pein, who was the most quiet out of the four of them spoke up. "I got to admit, even with four heads of ours, it's still definitely no match to the two of them or even Sasori alone." He calmly spoke, his leg getting a little sore from standing too long.

"Your point?" Deidara narrowed his eyes. He hated it when people always beat around the bush. Couldn't they understand that he was too lazy to think and infer those smart sentences?

"My point is that he must have knew that we are trying to set them up. So probably, he's enjoying his time, relaxing his legs and sitting on a chair while we're standing here like an idiots."

"Oh my fuckery." Hidan cracked his knuckles and was about to bang open the door when the blonde stopped him.

"What the hell are you doing yeah?"

"What do I look like I'm doing now? Painting the door of course."

As the couple emotionlessly watched the other two struggling with each other, there was a sudden knock on the door form the inside. Pein blinked while the other three immediately stood back in fright.

"They responded." Konan gasped.

"I could have died from a heart attack." Hidan pressed his palm onto his chest and breathed after he had broken the fight with Deidara.

"I wish you did yeah." Deidara muttered, ruffling his ponytail.

Konan looked over at her boyfriend steadily and gave a gulp. He closed his eyes and walked up towards the door, deciding that he should act as a leader for the first time.

Pein's fingers grasped around the hander, turning it and it immediately gave a click sound as it unlocked on its own. He pushed the door open with some force and released the handle, letting the door open itself.

There, standing right at the doorstep was none other than the redhead and pinkette. But that wasn't the thing the four of them were gaping at.

"_Would you like to go out with me?"_

"_Sure, Mr. Sausage~"_

They were holding hands, with an equally happy smile on their face.

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

Short and pretty much rushed chapter, again.

I've read each and everyone's reviews, saying about your own personal experience on how you know you are in love. Some are sweet, and some are quite sad too. I hope this chapter can cheer you up, although it's been a month since I updated XD

I hope you like this chapter! Reviews are love! :)


	9. No way that could happen

Remember?

_No way that could happen_

Down the crowded hallway was filled with students carrying books and bags, rushing to their first lesson for the day. Both Deidara and Hidan leaned against the wall just beside the water cooler as they stared out in space.

"I think I must be getting blind," Hidan stroked his chin, silently watching a girl's boob bouncing as she walked down the hallway in her tight top, "I need to get my eyes check."

"Are you stupid or just dumb?" Deidara gave a lame look over to Hidan. "It is real yeah! We all saw it."

"I'm just trying to comfort myself here you fucking asshole." Hidan barked. "I'm hot, smart and way charming than that emo redhead yet he gets the girl. What the fuck man. Sakura must be the one who is blind."

"Oh come on yeah. You? Hot, smart and even charming? I would rather admit I'm a girl." Deidara gave a disdained look.

"Fuck you." Hidan glared.

Deidara smirked, happy with himself that he managed to piss Hidan off. "Actually, I'm excited to see how the others would react when they first see Sasori and Sakura together. But I won't be surprise if the others knew what happened already with Konan around."

0o0

"...What?"

"Is that the only reaction you can give?" Konan scowled, pushing the huge lab goggles up her nose.

"I'm trying to remain as calm as possible so I wouldn't pour the whole freaking chemical into the solution and cause an explosion in the lab." Kakuzu placed the beakers on the table in a composed manner before looking back at Konan. "Paying the school for such a ridiculous reason would be a hassle."

"I get it, I get it." Konan raised her hand and gave him a stop sign before going back to her work in annoyance.

"Oh em gee. Really?" Kakuzu suddenly spoke up.

"What is wrong with you?" Konan made a face and blinked weirdly at her friend.

"Isn't that the reaction you desired? Well, I'm giving you one."

"From now on, I'm going to side with Hidan whenever he says you're a bastard." Konan turned away and continued working on the experiment.

Kakuzu pushed the beakers towards Konan before leaning against the table. "I already knew it would happen. In fact, I felt that it was a little longer than I thought."

Konan certainly didn't expected a reply. "You noticed?" She stared at him with an amusement gaze.

"I'm not just goofing around and thinking of money all the time." Kakuzu remained unfazed.

Konan smirked. "I'm surprise." She started scribbling onto the worksheet they were given to do while attempting on their assessment. "I thought you didn't care."

"Hn."

0o0

"You're funny when you try." Kisame patted onto Pein's back as he shook his head in disappointment. "Sasori and Sakura? I would rather believe that Hidan and Deidara are in love."

"You wouldn't want to say that if Konan is here. She believes and ships Sasori and Sakura together." Pein muttered.

"What are you and Konan trying to do? Dragging us to your unrealistic fandom?" Kisame laughed.

"What are you two talking about? Using weird words and terms like _ships _and_ fandom_." Itachi frowned as he looked at Pein before staring at Kisame.

They two of them went silent.

"O.K actually I don't really care." Itachi calmly went back to face Pein again, giving a skeptical look. "About the thing you told us, is that really...true?"

"Are you two testing me?" Pein cracked his knuckles threateningly. "Sasori and Sakura are indeed together. They just confessed yesterday."

Itachi gave an impassive look while Kisame laughed again.

"You're kidding." His laughter died down and stared solemnly at Pein. "No way that could happen."

Pein clicked his tongue and glared. "Which part of my sentence tells you I'm kidding?"

Itachi knew it was the time to shut up. He knew how risky it was to piss their leader off when his tolerance level was already reaching to its minimum, but Kisame didn't care. The fish-man continued to challenge their leader as he gave a cocky grin before crossing his arm defiantly and replied his question.

"Every part of it."

0o0

Lunch was never the same again. Everyone's seats were changed and the most obvious change was the fact that Sasori was sitting beside Sakura, way too close to Sakura. And now everyone was convinced, even Kisame.

They still had their lunch quite normally, although Sasori and Sakura would often have their private conversation with each other, blocking the rest of the world from their exchange and their moments together. It didn't really make much difference to everyone since in the past, Sasori was always quiet and Sakura was always the one listening.

The gang's attention often fell upon the two of them talking to each other happily, even when none of them noticed it.

Deidara, who was sitting at the corner of the table right opposite of Itachi and far away from Sasori, gave a long sigh. The Uchiha glanced at him and raised an eyebrow.

"There's trouble?" Itachi asked.

"I just feel happy yeah." Deidara confessed and gave yet another comforted sigh again before he smiled, slouching his back and resting his heavy head on the palm of his hand. "It's so rare to see Sasori happy, but now it happens everyday." He went and rubbed an invisible tear.

Itachi looked at the blonde in a weird way, as if he was an alien with four eyes. "You sound like you're his mother. Stop it."

Deidara rolled his eyes, straightening his posture before poking his straw into the packet of drink he had. "I mean, look at him and Sakura too. Both of them has become a lot more cheerful than before."

Itachi glanced at the two and afforded a slow nod. "I guess so." He muttered incoherently.

Deidara's silly rants continued, but Itachi's mind wasn't on the one-sided conversation between himself and Deidara. In fact, all his attention were just on the two new couple, or more specifically; Sakura.

0o0

Even after staying in the _new_ town for so long, Sakura rarely got the time to really look around and have fun at some places that were listed as popular in the country. So Sasori brought her to each and every place and always surprised her, even if it was just a regular sushi stand. She didn't know why, but everything little things Sasori did for her, she would feel a tingling sensation in her chest that wouldn't go away for a long time.

For today, they went to the beach. They walked for quite a while and found a bench to sit after they bought an ice-cream cone.

"Look, there's a water dragon!" Sasori widened his eyes, pointing at Sakura's side as his hand shivered in anticipation to exaggerate his excitement for his discovery.

"What?" Sakura turned and glanced around, but all she could see was families building sandcastles and playing in the water. She furrowed her brows and turned to demand an explanation about what was with his childish prank when she realized her last bite for her ice-cream was gone from her hands. She growled and raised her head, watching Sasori who was chortling and running away towards the sea.

"You better pay me another one!" Sakura yelled. She slipped into her sandals and picked up her handbag, dashing towards the redhead who was up ahead, sprinting effortlessly away from Sakura.

Sakura had no idea how many dates they had went together after their confession. But she was sure that even until now, she had never heard the three words every man would say to his loved ones from Sasori. Sakura really wished to hear it from him and to feel secure, pleasant and knowing that she really meant something to him. But Sakura knew even if everyone could easily say those three simple vocabulary words, her Sasori just couldn't.

She didn't know if it was his pride, or was he lacking the confidence to say it. But the thing that Sakura hated about Sasori was the way he played with his words. Those mind games and indirect comments that caused her to blush a few seconds later when she just realized what he was implying all the while. Yes, he did express how much he loved Sakura, even if he didn't simply just said _I love you_ to her. Whatever the reason, Sakura was willing to wait for that one day to hear him say those words just for her.

"You- Blarghgh!" Sakura gave a loud shout before she fell right onto the soft sand with her knee first before she landed right on her stomach.

Her yelp immediately caught Sasori's attention as he whirled around and stared shockingly at Sakura who was lying on the ground. The redhead stopped his running and in a flash, ran towards Sakura and squatted right in front of her, gentling taking her elbow and attempting to lift her up.

"Are you alright?" His face etched with a concern look as Sakura picked herself up and she sat on the sand. She glared at the few scratches on her hand while dusting the sand of her clothes. "Hey..." Sasori raised an innocent eyebrow. Sakura glanced up and glared even harder. Sasori tried to make a few funny faces and jokes to make Sakura at least smile but all failed.

"Serves you right!" Sakura suddenly stuck out her tongue and grabbed onto Sasori's shoulder, pushing him down. He immediately fell from his squatting position and he landed flat onto the sand while Sakura get up onto her feet and laughed. "I should join Hollywood." She joked before running away after Sasori feigned a hurtful and betrayed look over at Sakura behind his shoulder.

They continued running until Sasori finally caught her. The two of them laughed like a mad, crazy couple and people would occasionally glance and point at them for their weirdness but Sasori and Sakura didn't care. This _is_ their world, the world that only two of them belonged in.

They ate fast food for dinner and Sasori gave Sakura some of his fries. Other girls would just complain and accuse their boyfriend about wanting to get them fat But for Sakura, it was just the total opposite. She had no idea how many times she said she loved him when he poke his fries into her mouth after pretending those fries were planes.

It wasn't a long dinner and they finished just within thirty minutes. They wandered down the streets before deciding that walking home would be too far since they were now in the city-area and the two of them agreed to take the bus.

"Isn't that our bus?" Sakura pointed ahead, which was exactly the bus stop that had the bus both of them could board to go back to their town. Sasori immediately grabbed onto her hand and they made a dash towards the bus, waving frantically until the driver took notice of them and stopped. They board the bus and after showing their cards, they walked right to the end of the vehicle and sat at the back beside the window.

They did chat for a while, but drowsiness soon took over Sakura and she couldn't take it anymore. She then slowly leaned to her side, her head lowering until it touched Sasori's broad shoulders and she rested on it. The pinkette closed her eyes and inwardly smiled at the fact that until now, she never realized his shoulder was just nice for her to lie on. They remained in their comfortable position while the bus continued driving down the streets.

Sasori remembered those days when he always board onto random buses he saw and let it take him around the entire city before getting off at the exact stop he boarded the bus. He didn't do it for fun, but because the bus was the only way he could take his mind off everything that was bothering him that day. It had been long since he done that. It had stopped right after he met and finally got to know about Sakura.

For Sakura, she disliked taking the bus. Like that other day when she took the bus home after her small belated party she had at Konan's house. Sitting on a bus always made her think about things, mostly those unpleasant ones that would repeatedly play in her head. But this time, she wasn't thinking about any unpleasant things anymore.

The redhead lowered his gaze and watched as Sakura sleeping soundly on his shoulders. He reached out his hand towards her and combed her hair back behind her ears gently, making sure he wouldn't wake Sakura up.

For Sasori, this would probably be the most happiest and enjoyable bus ride he ever took other than those depressing ones. While as for Sakura, this was the most amazing and special ride she experience in her life and she'll never forget it.

0o0

After getting down from their stop, they walked for quite a while until they reached outside of Sakura's house where Sasori would drop her off. She turned to face Sasori as a light pink shade suddenly tinted on her cheeks.

"It was a great day." Sakura lips curled up into a smile. "I enjoyed every part of it."

Sasori immediately looked away, his eyes darting everywhere as if he was finding something to focus on. "I'm glad you did." He mumbled.

Her smile grew even wider. Their date was indeed a tiring day for Sakura but she didn't mind a bit. She's just like that, after every date both of them went, Sakura would mentally announce to herself that this was the best day of her life.

"I have something for you." Sakura spoke up and Sasori went back looking at Sakura. He just couldn't ignore that suspicious sensation he felt when Sakura was still having that cheeky grin on her face. "Come a little closer." Sakura smirked.

Sasori raised an eyebrow but in the end, he still followed what Sakura asked him to do. He inched his face closer to Sakura with a blank expression that made Sakura giggled inwardly. After a few seconds, Sakura moved forward too, closing her eyes and pecked her lips right into his. Sasori was definitely surprise, but he quickly gained back his composure and slowly shut his eyes and enjoyed the moments of silence as they stayed there for a couple of seconds.

They parted finally as they gazed at each other passionately before Sakura decided to speak first. "It's late and you should go before it gets even darker." She pointed innocently at the road behind Sasori. He gave an uninterested glance behind his shoulder but he decided he should really go.

"Good night, take care while you're on your way back home." Sakura waved as she gave a light push on his back when he turned around, which made him to start walking.

He gave a side long glance and waved back in assurance.

Watching as Sasori's shadows faded into the darkness, she whirled around and trudged towards the steps in front of her door and starting picking the correct key to unlock. After a while, she managed to get into the house.

"Mom and Dad, I'm home." Sakura walked inside, calling out once she stepped in to find the living room dark and empty. Her parents must have been out to have dinner since she told her mother not to cook her dinner for her. Man, she should have asked Sasori to come to her house, even if it was just a few more moments together.

Sakura grinned and kicked her shoes aside, slipping into her sot slippers as she switched the lights down the hallway and skipped back to her bedroom. The first thing she did when she opened her bedroom door was to flung herself onto her bed and snuggled her head into her fragrant bedsheets and pillow.

Right at that moment, she gave a muffled yell into the pillow, kicking her legs in the air excitedly before stopping to rest her aching body and getting fresh air. She repeated her actions another two times before she decided she should stop as she sat up straight on her bed, legs crossed and her head resting on the wall with her arm as the pillow cushion.

A few months ago, right at the spot she was sitting now, Sakura remembered the time when she realized she was in love and practically freaked out and didn't know what to do. Now when she thought back, she felt really silly but was relief at the fact that no one had seen that side of her before.

Everyday, after their date or school, Sakura would come back home and shout right into her pillow until she was left with no energy to continue her yelling. The reason why she did it every time was because she felt so delighted after every moments she had with Sasori, not just as friends but something more. It soon became a habit that Sakura felt hard to get rid of, but she didn't mind or care about it anymore. After all, she _does_ feel happy after every single dates and interactions she had with Sasori.

Sakura abruptly laid back onto her bed and turned to make herself stared up at the ceiling. She dazed for a few moments, wondering if Sasori had safely reached home and if he was tired and stuff. Without even trying, she already had all the questions and topics ready for her to talk with Sasori even when she just last saw him ten minutes ago.

If someone were to ask Sakura what she love about her new life in the town she barely knew a year ago, she would have to fake many happy feelings and lie about what she felt about the place she's living. But things had changed and Sakura didn't even need to lie anymore. Sasori was the reason why she bother getting up early in the morning, preparing herself for school just to see him even for the slightest moment. He was the only one that could make her life enjoyable especially in the hectic world she was living in. Only he could make her happy. Only him.

It was just like nothing could ever go wrong between the two of them. Even if girls tried to break the two up, the gang always settled it almost immediately without any problem, mostly thanks to Konan or the fact that their love was so strong that it made them inseparable.

However, not all the things could just be easily solve by the gang. Especially when the problem didn't lie on any third parties but the two of them instead.

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

Omg what is with the changes in fanfition?  
>This chapter shows more of the Akatsuki members showing more of their reactions rather than the moments obetween Sasori and Sakura. And those little romance scenes are so cliche Lol.<br>Btw, I'll love ANYONE who give me their fries. Come on, who the hell would hate fries?

Oh! If you're interested in reading more AU SasoSaku stories, I've uploaded a new story of mine, you can check it on my profile if you want.  
>Anyway, reviews are definitely loved!<p> 


	10. Something painful to remember

Remember?

_Something painful to remember_

"You looked stressful these past few weeks."

Sakura looked up, staring incredulously at her mother who was suddenly sitting beside her at the dining table. She had just prepared her dinner and was eating it when her mom just randomly popped out from nowhere and sat beside her, immediately mentioning about things that Sakura never thought her mother would care or realize.

"Yeah, actually. There's a lots of surprise tests and quizzes and I want to be prepared every time." She placed her utensils down, deciding to open up so she wouldn't miss the mother and daughter talk they rarely had.

"You never have to worry for all such things back in your old school, don't you? Isn't it better there then?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"You must have missed Ino, Hinata and the rest. Naruto must have missed you the most! You guys are best friends and you all must have been dying to see each other again, don't you?"

"What are you talking about, mom?" Sakura inclined her head, her eyes blinking with curiosity. It was weird to hear her mother talking about these things and she knew that wasn't exact the main subject she was trying to talk about.

Sakura's mom sighed, giving that guilty face before smiling sheepishly. Sakura smirked and shook her head and gave a concern look to her mother. "Is there anything I need to do for you?"

"I-" The older female looked hesitant and she looked away. Only after a while then she turned and gave a solemn expression over at Sakura that made her shudder inwardly for a second. "The thing is... one of my very good friend decided to sell her shares in this company that helps to bring up your dad's position in his job if he gets it. And he eventually did."

"That's great." Sakura smiled.

"The thing is that when he get his position, it means we can move to Konoha, back to the place where we belong." Her mother returned back a smile as well.

"Wh-What?" The pinkette's smile faltered.

"I knew you have finally grow fond of this place so what he initially intended is to just leave on his own while we'll stay here until your finish your studies. But since we also know you must have still miss your friends, we decide to leave here and return to the old town we used to live and stay there, permanently again."

Sakura's eyes wavered and she glanced away, not knowing what to say. "That's great..." She gave a soft murmur.

"I'm sure Ino, Hinata and the rest will be delighted to have you back-"

She looked down at the plate of food, which has slightly turned cold. Sakura never had a say in everything, so what was the point in even telling her their plan when they had everything ready and prepared from the start? The pinkette wasn't mad or sad, she just felt troubled... Why must everything be ruined when her life was becoming better?

"Your old school will definitely welcome you back! I can give them a call and-" Sakura's mother continued ranting, oblivious to the fact that Sakura was actually not even listening but in a daze instead.

What was going to happen to all her friends? And... Sasori? She absolutely could not leave here!

"We already bought a house there actually, the one closest to the playground you often played with Ino when you were young, I remember those times when you first met Hinata there-"

Sakura closed her eyes miserably, her head was hurting and she suddenly got all giddy all of the sudden. She wasn't that lost or nervous when she was told she had to move to a new town after her mother remarry, but now... Sakura really didn't know what to do anymore.

0o0

"Sakura?"

The said girl looked up from the ground and straightened her posture, staring up at the tall man standing before her. "Itachi? What brings you here?"

"I should be asking that." Itachi went and sat down without an invitation and raised a plastic bag filled with several cans of drinks. "I'm feeling a little thirsty and decided to buy some drinks so it can last me for a while."

"I see. Well, I'm just here to have some fresh air."

"You looked depressed."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Sakura scoffed, leaning back on the bench and looked up into the bright blue sky and silence fell.

"Sakura." Itachi suddenly spoke.

She turned and looked at him, patiently waiting for him to continue his question.

"You're from Konoha right?"

Not really surprised by that fact since Konan and Sasori knew about it too, she just gave a solid nod.

"A few weeks ago, I went back to your old hometown during a weekend since I have some errands to run and I stayed at Sasuke's for a day."

"Sa-Sasuke?" The name took her by surprise.

"Shocking isn't it, if you actually know about my relationship with my brother" Itachi afforded a small smile. "We usually wouldn't talk; at all. But when I mentioned about you, I thought I have to stay for another day to finish the conversation."

"Me?" Now Sakura wasn't only astonished but also confused.

"I told him about you enrolling into our school and stuff, and he started ranting about you." The Uchiha nodded. "Now that I think about it, your old life seems perfect and much better for you. You are completely different here."

"Yeah..." Sakura looked down at her flip-flops and started shuffling them on the ground. "I was quite upset that my life turned upside down when I first came here, but I can certainly say that it's different now."

"Really?" Itachi raised an eyebrow.

Sakura frowned, not sure why he seemed doubtful with her answer when she made it so clear, and it caused her to have a urge to ask him about it, but she was unsure... "Why the question?"

Itachi gave a mindless shrug before gazing intently at her again. He gave a casual slouch, his lower part of his arms resting on his thigh. "What Sasuke told me about your old life got me thinking for the entire day when I was on the train back here." His expression changed from being a little carefree to a solemn expression. "If you have a chance, will you want to go back?"

Those words that left his mouth hit her real hard. Her lips started to quiver and she turned away real quick, hoping that the soft whimper that escaped from her lips would go unheard.

"Itachi..." She tilted her head slightly and gave a bitter smile.

He froze, not really liking the look Sakura was giving.

"Indeed, I'm really leaving town and going back to Konoha in four more days."

Itachi was taken aback, not sure if his words hurt her or not.

"If you're wondering, you're the only person that knows about this. I don't plan on telling anyone else, not even Sasori especially." She continued.

"Why don't you tell him the truth?"

"I can't..." Sakura shook her head desperately. "It's just... the problems we might face when I leave the town is distance relationship and would be the main reason to be more exact."

"Is... is distance relationship that hard? You two could-" Itachi stopped as he stared at Sakura who was hugging tightly to herself with two arms over her chest, her eyes wavering and her lips trembling. He knew he shouldn't continue anymore as he remained quiet in the comfortable silence they had.

Sakura finally opened her mouth and spoke, "I wanted to, but..." She gazed down at her feet, reluctant to look at Itachi in the eye, "what if we both realized that it's hard to continue in the distance relationship and the feelings start to fade, I don't think I could take that amount of pain I have to go through in the end." Sakura started to beat softly on her chest, her eyes remained tightly shut. "I would rather suffer now than later."

"Why? I don't get it? Distance relationship doesn't matter, it'll work out eventually." Itachi comforted.

"I'm a friend of this pretty and kind neighbor. She lives just a street away and she often come to my house to play since I was six. She was slightly older, but never fails to bring out her bubbly and cheerful side." Sakura sighed softly, her eyes turning distant as if she was thinking about her past memories. "But she went and committed suicide when I just entered the sophomore year, but she was saved just in time. Her mother found her on her bed with an empty sleeping bottle by her side."

Itachi slightly widened his eyes, straightening his position before leaning back on the bench. He gave a short silence, indicating Sakura to continue. "She had been going out with this guy she met in her school for three whole years and nothing was able to break them apart. Everyone in the neighborhood knew they would end up together and have plenty of kids, and I agree with it too." Sakura gave a heavy sigh. "Not until when he resettled to another faraway town after their graduation."

"Well, technology has advanced." Itachi commented.

"Yeah, it does. That wasn't much of the problem. They still communicate almost every day like usual and nothing change, but feelings do..." Sakura turned and looked at Itachi, straight in the eye. "One day, out of the blue, he just told her he doesn't love her anymore and he had found someone else. And just like that, he break off all the connection she had with her. She went mad and went to kill herself, almost. I visited her at the hospital and it wasn't a pleasant sight at all." Sakura turned away, digging her face deep into her palm of her hand.

Itachi went over and placed his comforting hand on her shoulder, giving a tight grip. "Sasori wouldn't do that. He isn't that type of person-"

"I'm not implying that the victim is just me alone," Sakura's eye shot up, "I'm afraid I may turned into that man too. Suddenly, I would stop trying to keep our relationship together, feelings fade I will start to feel like moving on... and then I would hurt Sasori just like that bastard who hurt my friend."

"Sakura..."

"If I were to break his heart, he will turn away from _this _world and start building walls up, not wanting anyone to enter to _his own_ world. I don't want that to happen. I don't want others to spend their lifetime trying to break down those walls of his just because of me..."

Itachi lowered her gaze and turned away, not knowing what to say anymore.

"I would rather have Sasori find someone better than waiting for me. He hated waiting doesn't he? Now he doesn't have to anymore. He would find someone better and doesn't have all these problems that he have to face. That head girl in our school seems nice and kind, she's the best for him. Or Hidan's chemistry partner that can tolerate his nonsense, or perhaps... or perhaps..." She raised her hands and covered her face, and finally she let out a sob she had been holding back for so long.

0o0

"What?" Konan shrieked and slammed the table. Hidan stood up from his seat, letting the chair all while Deidara's ketchup sauce dripped down from his mouth when he left it hanging open like he was paralyzed.

"You can't be serious? What happened?" Kisame almost dropped his beverage.

"She told me through a message on the phone. I tried sending her messages and called her up and appeared at her front door but she wouldn't answer it at all. I have no idea what happened and-" He shut his eyes miserably and lowered his head like a turtle.

"Sakura isn't like this. Did anyone see her today yet?" Konan asked.

"I have the same Biology period as her, but she went to the nurse office and hasn't came back even when the lesson was over." Kakuzu commented.

"She couldn't be avoiding us, right?" Deidara gave a doubtful look.

"What are you going to do?" Pein looked over at Sasori, deciding to ask the main lead than listening to all the babbling from his friends.

"I won't let this matter rest. It's impossible, nothing is wrong between us." Sasori shook his head in a manner of confusion. "No matter what, I'll find her and confront her till she gives me a proper answer."

0o0

On the rooftop with a couple of cooling breeze blowing by, Sakura was leaning against the tall wall that she often hide behind it in the past to avoid anyone to know she was here when she was actually crying or feeling upset. Right before her was Itachi, who she had called using their phone to come up to the rooftop during lunch period.

"You... already tell him?" Itachi gave an uncertain look.

"Yeah, I did." Her lips started to quiver and she could start to feel a lump in her throat.

Itachi glanced away, not sure if he should even try to imagine how hurt his friend would be.

"I can't take it anymore. When I saw him standing right outside my house, calling me and sending me messages every second, I just feel my heart was broken into pieces and pieces. And the thing is, I have broke his heart too..." Sakura wiped her eyes with her palm of her hand. "Why am I such a sickening bitch?" She sniveled.

"I know I've said this countless times but risk is something everyone should take in life, even when you know it'll hurt you in the end." Itachi gave a small pat on her shoulder to soothe Sakura down.

Sakura turned towards him, indirectly forcing him to move away his hands and put it away from her shoulder. "If things are simpler this way, it would have been better. But I'm not a risk-taker, especially when I already know how serious the consequences could be if we just take one small wrong step. It can work out if we try, but if we just put in a little less effort than we put in before, perhaps things can turn ugly and wouldn't work out anymore." She looked down on the ground and curled her toes in her shoe.

"I don't know what to do... I don't want to lose you guys. I don't want to lose Sasori..." Slowly and steadily, She placed her head right into Itachi's chest and started wailing. Itachi just softened his gaze and just pulled her closer into his chest.

"It's alright... I know it's hard to leave someone who you love dearly..." Itachi spoke, closing his eyes as images of Sasuke flashed across his mind and his chest tightened. He gave a small pat on Sakura's shoulder and continued with the calm and smooth voice of his. "Just let it all out, it'll be fine."

"I'm sorry Itachi, I'm so so sorry..."

"I'm just doing my job. As a friend, I'm suppose to do whatever I can if you needed help." Itachi opened his eyes and softened his gaze before looking up to face the door. At that instant, his eyes grew so huge that he swore it could have popped right out any moment.

"Sasori, why you-" Deidara panted heavily and stood beside the redhead who was holding onto the metal door before it could swing back to its original position. The blonde looked up at what his friend was being distracted from and his mouth hung right open.

"Itachi?" Deidara blinked for a thousand time.

Noticing how stiff Itachi had became, Sakura looked up with her swollen eyes to stare at the Uchiha who was looking ahead. Being curious, she turned to find not only Deidara but the redhead she had been trying her best to avoid today. She gasped inwardly and took a step back from Itachi, not knowing what else to do.

Sasori stared at the two with his emotionless dead eyes and lowered his head, his hair covering the rest of his eyes features before turing around to leave. Deidara immediately went and clung onto the metal door when his friend leave before looking back at Sakura and Itachi with a disbelieving frown.

"What happened to Sasori?" Next that came up the roof was Konan as she looked back at the stairways where she saw Sasori depressingly trudging down the steps before looking at Deidara with a questioning look. Deidara the gave a look over at Itachi before leaving the scene too. Konan, still confused, turned to see what was happening to find the two of them together at the rooftop, still at the same position, neither moving or talking at all as they were just frozen in shock. She stared for a couple of seconds and realization seemed to dawn over her as she twirled around abruptly and followed Deidara down to the canteen.

To Sasori, the scene between Sakura and Itachi was enough to provide him with an answer he never wanted to know.

0o0

"There's nothing between us, damn it." Itachi snapped.

"Oh really yeah? The fact that you two were hugging each other and stuff says absolutely nothing about being a couple?" Deidara scoffed.

"You better shut the hell up when you know nothing about the situation." He growled.

Two days after the incident, the tension between everyone didn't lessen, not even a bit even when Pein decided to isolate Itachi for a while while Sasori tried to regain back his composure. The latter had been silent from that time onwards and he wouldn't even answer questions that just needed an one word answer.

So, because he wouldn't pick up any calls during the weekend when the rest were worried about him, they decided to stop at his house and went to barge into his room when he was lying on the bed, looking almost dead that Kisame thought he just saw a corpse. They brought Itachi over, after they realized the situation wasn't any better or worse with the Uchiha around.

"Then tell us! There is Sasori and now you can explain the things and solve the issue problem here." Konan gestured over at Sasori who was now being pulled out from the bed and sitting quietly at the corner of the room.

"It's not that I don't want to say it, but I can't say it." Itachi claimed.

"What the hell man, just spit it out." Pein slammed his fist on the bed.

"He's such a douche bag." Deidara gave a withering look.

"I know this is awkward but I'm at your fucking side." Hidan shook Sasori's shoulder back and forth.

Itachi raised both of his eyebrow as he could feel a vibration in his pocket and when he fished out his phone, he received a text message from a number he rarely seen in his phone. He gave a glance at the group and turned around, standing at the corner of the room and read his text.

_This is Sakura. I'm leaving for the train station in 30mins time. Just want to say good bye. Maybe in an hours after I leave, you can help me transfer my message that I'll miss everyone there. Thank you for everything._

Itachi widened his eyes and his grip around the phone tightened as he realized the message he received was none other than Sakura. He put down his phone and gave a harsh, confused sigh, whirling around and stared at the group in front of him.

_What should I do? She's leaving, what should I do? _The Uchiha turned his hand into a fist and started knocking his head desperately. In a second, he lifted up his phone and started dialing Sakura , hoping that she could persuade her to change her mind again, but the phone was actually switched off. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, knowing that she had made a quicker move but shutting of her phone. After a few seconds, he spun around.

"Guys, let me explain this." He gave no time for others to react with his sudden movement and just spoke.

"What the fuck is it then" Hidan shook his head. "What could be your pathetic reason be for breaking this awful guy's heart."

"Will you shut up?" Kakuzu barked and turned to the rest, feeling a little pissed off when he couldn't control his temper anymore. "Until now, I believe Itachi wouldn't do something like this put of the blue. You changed your mind?" He stared a little hopefully at Itachi and he gave a grateful nod.

There was a long silence between all of them and finally, when Sasori gave a slight turn, it sort of signaled Itachi to continue what he wanted to say for the longest time but kept silent because he made a promise to Sakura,

"Sakura and I are not having any ridiculous affair. She was just sad because she was trying her best to avoid everyone, especially Sasori because she has to leave the town in 30 minutes time."

"What are you talking?" Konan jumped up to her feet.

"She said she isn't good at commitment, she isn't sure if she can dedicate her whole love life on Sasori if they are separated from one another when each of their lives change." Itachi shrugged and looked up at Sasori and he was looking intently at the Uchiha.

For the longest moment of everyone's life, Sasori stirred and straightened his posture. The only thing in the world that could wake him up from a nightmare was none other than Sakura.

"She is avoiding me and decided to break up because of this?" Sasori spoke, for the first time out of the past two days. He sounded as if he wanted to laugh, as if all of this was just a funny joke to him.

Itachi just looked at him with an impassive expression.

"She can't be serious, can she?" Sasori gave a half-hearted laugh.

"30 minutes. It's just this amount of time left, or she will be on her way to another far away town that needed a six hour train ride." Itachi gave a small smile in the end. "I know she can't forget you, and I've been persuading her to stay many times. Now that I think about it, I felt stupid for not thinking about it before. Maybe you can be the one who can convince her to stay. She loves you, if that isn't obvious enough."

0o0

"Follow that car!" Hidan pointed down and the road and gave a exasperated shout. Everyone glanced at him with a surprised look while Konan immediately whacked his head.

"This isn't the time you dick!" Konan snarled and turned towards the driver, giving an apologetic look. "To the train station please, and make it fast."

"I always fucking want to say that when I get into a cab." Hidan leaned back onto his seat and gave a smug.

"Why is he here again yeah?" Deidara gave a look over at Sasori and Konan.

The driver just stepped onto her accelerator and sped off. Only after ten minutes and a few miles from the entrance of the train station, there was a huge congestion and the cab started to slow down and was moving at a snail speed.

"Is there anyway to U-turn so we can get there?" Konan urged.

"It's impossible to U-turn. But you can reach there faster if you walk."

Sasori leaned forward, indicating he was ready to listen to whatever the driver had to say.

"There's an underground passageway you can go to get to the train station." He pointed on their right and gestured. "Just go down there and walk straight, follow the signs and you can get there. It's much faster then this jam here." He drawled.

"Go on!" Hidan nudged to the redhead.

"What are you waiting for yeah!" Deidara unlocked the door and pushed the door open from the inside. "Hurry before it's too late!"

"Thank you, I'm leaving to you guys." Sasori gave a short nod before rushing out of the cab and slammed the door shut. He stared at the underground tunnel for a moment and sprinted towards it, following the driver's instruction to get to the train station.

0o0

In the midst of the crowd, Sasori spotted the person he was finding in a second. The flash of pink caught his eyes immediately and he focused hard on it while squeezing through the crowded people who were either busy looking at their maps of chatting with their relatives and friends before leaving the town.

"Sakura." He finally managed to stop her as he stood right in between her and the train. She gave a scowl and tried to move away but the redhead blocked her path again and all she could do was to grit her teeth in annoyance.

"What is it? Isn't it over? Why are you here? Yes, Itachi and I are in a relationship, that is what you think and it's true so-"

"He told me the truth, there's no point in saying anything more." Sasori cut in.

"Itachi, he-" She furrowed her brows and growled inwardly. All she wanted was to leave peacefully, the best was that no one will send her off so she wouldn't feel anything when she leave the town.

Her mom and dad gave a slight wave at Sakura through the carriage window and Sakura directed a small glance at Sasori, hinting she wanted some time with the man in front of him before boarding the train. Her parents understood and went back talking about some matters between themselves.

"Why are you so foolish? Why are you doing this?" Sasori grabbed onto Sakura's shoulder and tried to pull her in but she stood there firmly, not budging at all.

"You believe we can continue our relationship after we separates?" Sakura gave a laugh, a fake laugh to be exact as she pushed Sasori's arm away. "Everything has to end someday. The pain would go faster and we can focus on our own lives better. No party would get hurt after a while longer and everything will be alright." Her voice turning hoarse as she continued her last sentence softly.

"That's why I rather we just end this now..."

Sasori didn't give up, he wouldn't anyway. If she were to board onto the train, it meant that she would be leaving the new life she was trying to adapt to, her new friends, Sasori and maybe... her happiness. But she would be returning to her old friends and town, a place where she missed every single day. However, he decided to be selfish this time.

"Stay here, stay here with me. If that is what you're afraid of. Why don't you live with me, we can be together! Distance relationship then wouldn't matter anymore. You don't have to worry about anymore things-"

"The train is leaving and my parents are waiting. I have to go!" Sakura was nearly shouting, the horns of the train blowing again, a longer time as it indicated that it was the last signal before the door officially close.

"Please-"

"It's time to move on. The time we spent together, let's just keep them as our memories instead of something painful to remember. Why can't you understand that I don't want to hurt you if everything ends up becomes even ugly than this?" Sakura slightly pushed Sasori off when he attempted to take a step closer.

He lifted his arms and pointed a finger right at his chest."I understand, I wouldn't want to hurt you too. But I dare to take the risk, because I want to be with you. Because I love you."

"Stop it..." Sakura slowly went to cover her ears.

"Sakura-"

"I-I have to." Sakura wriggled her wrist out of Sasori's grip and took a step back. "I'm sorry Sasori. This isn't my choice but I have to..." Her voice turning softer and softer till they were nothing but mumbles. Giving a last look, she swirled around and stepped right into the train just in time before the door closed a whole five seconds later.

After the door closed, the train started to move, very slowly at the start but it started to gain speed and it moved fast and faster. Sakura just stood by the door for a very long time, her eyes were moist and her nose was red but no tears was shed. Only when an attendant came towards her to ask if she needed any help, Sakura realized that Sasori had finally said the three words she had been wanting to hear for so long. She cupped her mouth with her hand to stop the sound of sobs from escaping and finally let a tear rolled down her cheek.

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

EDIT: OMG THIS IS NOT THE END


	11. I still need her by my side

Remember?

_I still need her by my side._

That day when Konan and the rest reached the train station, none of the two were in sight. They tried contacting Sasori but to no avail. It was only a while when they decided to check the schedule for the train that Itachi had said Sakura would be boarding, it stated that it had left the station ten minutes ago.

But Sasori was nowhere to be found.

Before splitting up to find him, Konan called back, informing what exactly happened at the station to Pein and the others. Itachi easily deduced that perhaps Sasori didn't make it or managed to convince Sakura, hence he was missing but others were trying to find reasons to disagree with him, however, there was none. Afraid that Sasori would act recklessly, Pein and the others decided to search for Sasori elsewhere, in case he had already left the station and went other places.

Hidan decided to find Sasori around snacks machines, his reason being that the redhead may be buying tons of chocolate to cheer himself up while Deidara searched the restroom. Konan, whereas, approached to benches and benches, looking for any particular redhead sitting on any of the benches. It took her full fifteen minutes to finally spot Sasori from a distant. He was sitting right beside the phone booth, where there were lesser passengers waiting and lingering around.

Konan trudged silently and tentatively towards him and decided to make her presence known. She stood right beside him and stayed there for a full minute before sitting down without an invitation. Her brows ceased and her tone filled with worry as she spoke.

"Sasori. Are you alright?"

There was no reply.

"I suppose, she left?" That goes without saying.

There no reply again, but Sasori just slowly nodded in respond. At least he wasn't ignoring her like what she thought he would do.

"You know... Sakura isn't like that. Maybe it's a prank. Between her and Itachi-" She didn't continue any longer because she knew she was just acting stupid. But she had no idea what else to say. Why did her comforting skills vanished suddenly when she needed it right now?

"There's nothing to say anymore." Sasori muttered, trying his best not to snap at Konan. "From now on, I'm just going to live my life like what I usually do in the past. Really, there's no point talking about something that wouldn't change no matter what."

"We're together, you know. We don't call ourselves a gang for nothing. When you have a problem, we share the burden."

Sasori's attention was on the ground. He never once looked up at all.

"The guys are afraid you'll do something foolish." Konan bit her lower lips as she continued, originally not wanting to admit the truth to him. But she had to. This was the main reason why everyone was so worried about the redhead after Itachi had deduced the outcome. No one could understand him, which means none of them would be able to predict what he was going to do. Even Deidara gave up the guessing game.

"It's just a relationship." Sasori gave a withering look. "It's not like I have never lose someone in my life before."

_That's why we're worried. _"But-"

"Konan." Sasori fixated his eyes on her. "I'm perfectly fine."

It was a lie, definitely. But she decided to put herself into his shoes to understand him better. That was Sakura's words of advice to her in the past, putting oneself into other people's shoes would greatly reduce misunderstanding between two people and it would be easier to choose what kind of words to response to the other without hurting the other party feelings.

That was why Konan stood up from her seat, stopped her pointless and endless conversation and sighed. She also knew from his eyes it was a sign to leave and let him be alone, so she respected his decision and decided to leave him in peace since that was what she would want to if she were to have a huge fight with Pein.

It was just pretty sad, in Konan's opinion. She was so happy in the past when the two of them were together. And now these things happened all of a sudden that even she herself couldn't adjust well in the situation, not to mention Sasori. It was his true first love and everything ended so quickly, exactly like Deidara favorite catchword; Fleeting. And it would not be a surprise if Sasori literally knocked the blonde out if he dare to mention that word in front of him.

He was about to look up as his patience was running out but Konan moved quicker when she realized Sasori might be irritated at her. She turned and strolled away, glancing at him for one last time before fishing her phone out of her pocket, preparing to dial the others to inform about what the two of them had talked, which was not much in fact.

A moment later, after making sure that she was out of sight, he leaned tiredly against the bench, placed his arms over his eyes and stayed like that for the entire afternoon; At least until his lips stopped quivering first.

0o0

Two thick pile of flyers were set on a small table, and the large familiar hot dog costume resting the ground right next to the table. Sasori just walked into the empty room and placed his bag right beside his costume and picked up a note that was sticked on the flyer, which instructed him where was the venue he was suppose to distribute the flyers at.

It was better anyway, much better than standing outside the construction site. It brought too much good memories that would never happen again, along with the other memories which he knew he would never be able to forget.

After school, starting from last week, he had immediately ditched the entire gang and came down to work here. It was better this way, not only for himself and for the others too. He knew they were all worried for him, but they really need to know that he was already grown-up, not some 5-year-old kid who got bullied for sweets. That was why everyday after school, he would make a dash, escaping from the rest of his friends and their _therapy. _He needed his peace and quiet once in a while, furthermore, having them around him and doing awkward actions like pretending to be cheerful around him didn't really help much either.

"You sure are in need of cash, aren't you?"

Sasori tilted his head slightly, looking at one of the workers who was specialized in painting the interior walls of the soon-to-be open 'The Youthful Passion of John's Hot Dog' The redhead just frowned and blinked dumbly.

"You've been working like you are preparing to buy a house. What are you saving up for?"

"I wasn't saving up for anything in particular."

"You requested for longer shifts, even during the weekends. Don't you have a life?"

"I can manage my work." Sasori shrugged, picking up his costume and ready to change.

The worker was still persistent. "What about that cute girlfriend of yours. Haven't been seeing her around lately. Are you saving up to buy her a surprise gift?"

He stood still in his position, the grip around his costume loosened and he lowered his gaze. It had been a week since that day and he had been trying hard, too damn hard to forget about it. Even sacrificing his free time and work his socks off in order to keep himself entertained with things to do so he wouldn't think of_ pointless_ things. But it was because of his weird change of attitude and behavior, it made more people questioned his reasons.

"...Yeah." He finally replied after a long pause.

It was just that he didn't how to react after a breakup. What was he suppose to feel? Was he suppose to feel sad? Was he suppose to feel angry? There was a moment when he wanted to just hate Sakura for causing his distress and get over with it. But he couldn't do it, even when his brain was begging him to do the logical thing, his heart would be telling him the other thing. This was the first time he was using an emotion to make a decision, instead of using his brain to make the _correct and wise _decision.

_I still need her by my side. I need her so badly..._

"No wonder. The boss also needs a lot of helpers to promote the restaurant anyway although he had started to do it way before it was even ready to operate." He laughed heartily before walking towards Sasori and gave a pat on his back. "Work hard! But don't neglect your health and studies."

Sasori afforded the best smile he could give, but all it end up was a smirk. "I won't."

The worker was still rambling on and on as he walked out of the room, not even knowing that Sasori couldn't hear what he was saying at all. But the latter wasn't really listening in the first place, his heart was overwhelmed with so many emotions that he disliked, which he didn't know what was what anymore; all thanks to a girl named Haruno Sakura.

0o0

Somehow, Sakura always a found a way to either justify Sasori's traits or make it sound better than it really was. But it wasn't just because she disliked hearing people call him indifferent or rude, even if it was his friends calling him those names; it was also because she understood him the best. Once, long ago, she thought he was being quiet and apathetic. But now, she realized he was not everything she had thought he was.

The reason was not because he was originally gentle and kind from the start. It was her way of changing people around her. Her warmth and cheerful smile just made him want to be like her, and it gave him a sort of attraction that no one managed to for his past years of living.

But the light was taken away in just a second, a decision.

Sakura grabbed onto her bag that was on her lap tightly, the train was slowing down and her parents were standing up, preparing to take their belongings. The place she had seen through the glass window when the train was travelling at high speed was so foreign to her that she thought she was in another country, another planet.

She felt like she didn't recognize the place she once dreamt to come back everyday

Sakura stepped out of the train, giving a long stretch and took a deep breath. She exhaled heavily, her eyes scanning around the station. She suddenly remembered the incident that happened on the other station that made her cried for the entire hour in the cubicle, until her worried mother started knocking and asked if she needed help.

But now, after an hour of crying and the remaining five hours of ride, she had been clearing her mind and trying to think of what she was going to do back in her old town. She had planned a long list and had jotted them down on a piece of paper, which she could easily refer to and could keep her at least busy for a month, so she wouldn't have any time to think of some memories she wished to forget.

"Sakura-chan!"

The sound of her name and the familiarity of the tone swiftly snapped her out from her thoughts as she looked up, watching her group of friends skipping towards her.

"Everyone..." Sakura widened her eyes before turning to stare at her mother, knowing that it must be her behind this surprise visit.

"I called them over to surprise you. You look so down in the train" Her mother gave a pat on Sakura's head

She turned to the rest of them and immediately dropped the bags in her hand and ran forward. She immediately jumped right into their arms and everyone were shrilling and screaming that everyone around them thought they were mad.

"Ino... Naruto... Hinata... Everyone..." All the familiar faces she recognized, all the warm smiles she was so used to that she could never forget. The negative thoughts about returning to the town before vanished instantly and all she could think about was how to spend her lost time with her friends.

_Maybe... maybe it was alright to come back after all..._

* * *

><p>I have no idea what excatly happened after break-up but yeah...<p>

I'm am so sorry for the lack of updates. A major exam of mine is coming up and I have to study really hard for it. Can't say if I can update during my exam period but definitely after November, until then, I have all the time in the world to update and complete this story!  
>Bear with me for a while ~<p>

Next would be Sakura's POV


	12. I still need him by my side

Remember?

_I still need him by my side._

It wasn't even a full year since she moved but everything in town seemed so foreign to her. She couldn't quite put her finger on the reason. But walking into the wrong classroom twice sort of proved her point.

"Isn't this the school library?" Sakura frowned and pointed at the sign that stated "Teacher's office."

"The library is located at the other side of the floor. Sakura, it's barely a year since you left yet you acted like you've never been here before." Ino combed her fringe through her finger, clicking her tongue in annoyance when her hair was tangled.

"I also don't know why am I like this. I feel like I don't belong here." Sakura tried to elaborate further but she found that Ino wasn't really listening to her but was more interested in her hair instead.

"Don't be silly." Ino mumbled, her eyes almost crossed as she stared annoyed at the tangled in her hair.

Sakura shrugged, giving a small yawn. She didn't sleep well last night after all. She missed her old pillow, her old bed, her old blanket. The point was that it was hard to sleep for her.

"Oh look, the all-mighty bitch is here."

At that moment Sakura almost forgotten what those words even meant, she didn't exactly know how she was suppose to react. Was she suppose to laugh and agree with Ino and say something sarcastic?

"Hey Sakura, you came back." Rima awkwardly smiled, glancing over at Ino who was giving that disdain look. Realisation dawned over Rima as her smile faded away. Sakura may just back in school and knowing nothing about all the new gossips, Ino would explain and elaborate every single details needed in just less than a day.

"Hey, miss your table partner?" Sakura approached her classmate.

"Yeah." Rima grimaced, regretting her choice to even greet Sakura in the first place. "Anyway, I got to go."

"What's the rush?"

"Sakura, we _got_ to go too." Ino tugged onto the hem of Sakura's shirt, giving a signal to really _go_.

"What's wrong?" Sakura had no idea what was happening and she was starting to dislike that unspecific sort of tension between Rima and Ino.

"Rima have a bad reputation. It's a long story but don't go close to her. She's _polluted_." Ino spat, her last word was soaked with venom.

Sakura frowned, not liking how Ino talked about her friend. Deciding to ignore her, Sakura smiled at Rima and spoke. "Can I borrow your notes for the next lesson?"

Rima widened her eyes. She glanced over at Ino who was giving a look of disbelief at Sakura and then gulped. "S-Sure, I'll be glad. The seat beside me is still empty anyway."

"Alright see you later!"

"Yeah."

Sakura turned to her friend and they continued walking in silence, not until when they turned to a corner, Ino just gave an incredulous look at her. "What are you doing?!" She muttered dangerously through clenched teeth.

"Nothing. Is there something wrong?"

"You're really different ever since you came back from who-knows-where. You changed a lot." Ino responded dryly.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Did I? How different?"

Ino almost face-palm, but she didn't want to ruin her manicure. "Let's drop it. We're awfully late after you stopped to talk to that woman."

Sakura didn't understand. Did she change? What and how much had she changed? This was just her being herself. She sighed inwardly. Maybe the times she spent in her _new_ home changed her to someone so naturally that she thought was herself. If she was who she was in the past and met Rima on the way instead, how would she have reacted? Sakura wanted to know that answer to herself too.

0o0

Today was the fifth day she'd been trying to accommodate to herself in her_ new_ environment. She felt so lost in the town where she used to call her home. Sakura didn't feel the usual familiarity she had in the past and now, she missed her previous home _more_.

She was more used having sandwiches and juice now and she began to miss the food actually when she didn't like it at first. She missed the long street she had to walk, instead of crossing a road to reach home. She missed the times when she had real fun fooling and joking around rather than gossiping about pointless things that benefited no one but hurt only the people around her. But most of all... she really wanted to try the hot dog restaurant that probably was about to open soon.

Sakura laughed dryly, her eyes slightly teared and her lips quivered. She turned to her side, half of her face was buried into the pillow. It was hard for her to accept that someone who had been a part of her life was just gone in a second.

Before she left Sasori, she thought about a lot of things. She told herself not to think about her life there, not to care about others and be selfish for once. Though the more she tell herself that, the more she regret all the choices she made. Occasionally, Sakura wanted to call Sasori, to at least ask how he was doing-without her. But often before she could even do anything, she broke down crying.

The house she was living in now was much colder and emptier. Her parents were always out, more often than before. In the past, Sakura was always excited about it as she could hang out without the need to get permission. But she didn't feel like contacting Ino and her other usual friends to crash a party at her house, or going to the mall to do window-shopping. She just didn't feel like doing anything she did in the past.

Sakura just felt tired, really tired.

She missed Sasori and the rest till her chest hurts.

Tears started swelling in her eyes once again. It would be another night where she cried about a fact that she couldn't change. It would be another night where she would repeat that same sentence over and over till she fell asleep.

"Sasori..." Sakura tightened the grip around her pillow. "I still need him by my side."

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<br>"Wow. 2 months of no update and you come up with a short and idiotic chapter." Bravo  
>I can see a bunch of my readers flying away due to the lack of update~<br>Hey! I'm sorta back! Done with exams and crap but I got a job and it's draining the amount of spare time I have with fanfiction. I apologize.

So that's all, Reviews are very appreciated!


	13. End of my story

Remember?

_End of my story._

It was a cold morning. Autumn was almost over and winter started approaching.

Days and months passed, and everything was put at the back of his head.

"Bill please"

"Cheese fries, black pepper hotdog and cheesy hotdog. Table 12!"

The business was brisk and customer kept on loitering in every minute. Volunteering to work on a Sunday is definitely stupid, crazily stupid. But the pay is higher and Sasori could just focussed on his work and nothing else.

Hidan shook his head, eyeing Sasori up and down. "You shouldn't overwork yourself baby. It's bad for your health."

Sasori grumpily placed the cups of drinks they ordered respectively. "So all of you came over just to tell me this?" He muttered. "You guys should leave if all of you are trying to find my trouble."

"We came especially to visit you, how can you say that?" Konan gave a smile as if she was hurt before glancing around. "To be honest, I want to work here too. It looks fun and holidays are approaching too."

Kisame almost chocked on his drink and stared at Konan. "Are you serious. You'll just turn into a moody guy like him. And don't forget how you PMS every month."

They began chattering and Sasori just slowly stepped away and continued with his work. He knew they were worried about him but it's not like he's five years old.

0o0

The school was closed today.

What was she thinking actually. It's Sunday today, why would the school be open?

But something just brought her there. Straight after she alighted from the train, she took a cab and went there. That was the place that held many fun and enjoyable memories for her after all.

Sakura turned away from the school and started walking, mindlessly. She didn't thought much about anything and let her legs take the lead. She walked and walked, for a while, until she realized where she was heading when she noticed a crowd ahead.

"Welcome in! Welcome!"

"There's still that one for one hotdog right?"

"Yes!"

It was that familiar hotdog, standing and giving out balloons while gesturing customer into the restaurant. Sakura's heart skipped a beat and widened her eyes. Her legs started trembling for no apparent reason and her hands started sweating.

"The restaurant... is open..."

Of course no one heard her. It was crowded and her voice sounded just like a mice squeaking. As the hotdog handed out the last balloon to a girl and her family went in to have their food, the hotdog slumped tiredly against the brick wall and started fanning itself with the flyers in its hand.

Sakura took a tentative step forward, and then another. She was still unclear of what she was doing or trying to do. It took her just about all the courage she could muster to clear her throat and spoke, but it was barely a whisper.

"Hi."

She wasn't sure if the person behind the mascot heard her because the sausage didn't turn, or even answer her greetings. Then a thought struck her. What if it was Sasori wearing the costume?

Sakura felt like her body was roasting. The back of her neck suddenly turned hot, her eyes darting left and right for a wall to hide behind. It was awkward, really, to suddenly appear out of nowhere and just stand in front of-

The fat hotdog suddenly turned and it sort of jerked for a moment before it seemed to regain back its composure. "Oh hello! Sorry this attire sure is thick! I can barely hear you calling for me. Is there something I can do for you?"

That voice Sakura heard was exactly different from what she remembered hearing the first day she became friends with Sasori in his costume. She blinked, slowly cooling herself down and smiled sheepishly. "Oh no worries. I just want to ask if there's some sort of celebration in this restaurant?"

Sakura couldn't help but felt stupid. Utterly stupid. She knew that she wanted the person in the costume to be actually Sasori yet she's acting like she didn't want it to be. Why was she still feigning? She still loves him, even after for so long. Her heart hurts a little as she wondered what could Sasori's reaction actually be if he were to see her? Probably he would just walk away, walking to find his new love, walking away and giving a disdain glance back.

She almost felt like crying right now.

"Yes of course!" Sakura looked up, sort of guessing that this person was a girl, judging from the voice and enthusiasm. "Today is the end of the first week after the grand opening! We still have the special one for one hotdog promotion so take a look!" The hotdog handed out a flyer and Sakura absently took it. She brought it close to her chest, caressing the smooth texture on the paper.

An image flashed across her mind as she smiled slightly, remembering the day when she first received the flyer. It was their first meeting after all. To be exact, it's actually their second meeting.

"What a coincidence..." Sakura softly mumbled, a faint smile gradually appeared. "It opened exactly a week on the day I returned..."

"Do you like to go in? It's crowded but I betcha there's definitely a seat for you! The restaurant sure is big!"

Sakura wanted to ask if Sasori was working here, but she found herself foolish. Why would he be still here? He must have moved on and left this place already.

_"Once this family restaurant opens, we should try it."_

_"Yeah!"_

She remembered...it was one of the promises they shared.

Sakura looked up, the smile etched on her lips. "Please guide the way."

0o0

"Table for?"

"One please."

The waitress brought Sakura to a lone table at the corner, and she gave a menu before leaving for her duties. Sakura scanned over the menu, wondering how was she suppose to enjoy the special promotion when she came alone. She laughed drily.

It's called a_ family_ restaurant after all.

She ordered her food and drinks and waited, watching out of the glass window silently and ignoring the noises at the back of head. That's why she wasn't able to notice the weird commotion right behind her.

"Oh my fucking-"

"My eyesight is really bad now."

"The fish?!"

"Isn't that..."

"Holy shit yeah!"

"Even my money can't believe this."

"Sakura!"

The whole gang were literally jumping on their seats, as if there were sitting on a volcano. Their voices and actions brought some attention from a few other customers but Sakura was just there, sitting alone and wondering who-know-what.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Everyone looked up, watching Sasori staring at them.

"Some people are complaining that-"

Hidan gave a stop sign before pointing at something behind Sasori. "Hold the fuck up and turned the fuck around."

"You should listen to Hidan for once."

"Yeah, but you have to stay calm though."

Sasori raised an eyebrow and frowned. "I have no times for games so if it's some stupid tricks you guys are playing, I won't hesitate to kick you guys out."

"Just. Turn." Pein spat.

The redhead sighed, slowly turning and his head stopped at the moment when something caught his attention.

Pink?

Everything turned blur for a second and Sasori almost died right there if his heart didn't continue beating when he held his breath for so long.

"Two cheesy hotdogs and a diet coke to table 32!"

Sasori's eyes lit up as he sprinted to the counter and snatched the tray of food from his colleague's hands.

"I'll take this."

"Uh, sure."

As his colleague walked away, he stared down at the tray and then the hotdogs. He glanced at Sakura's table, realizing that no one had came here with her, or at least eating the hotdog with her. He notified another waiter about his break time before approaching table 32.

"Here's your food."

"Thank you." Sakura emotionlessly took the tray and wanted to start eating her food when she paused, and slowly lifted her head.

"You wouldn't mind if I join you? I havent got my break yet."

Sakura blinked, and blinked and blinked several more times before scooting her chair away, nodding her head desperately as Sasori took the seat beside her.

He could feel it. He could feel the whole gang watching his every moves, and probably laughing at him. He cleared his throat, but before he could say anything, Sakura handed the extra hotdog and smiled merrily. "I thought I'll be taking away, I guess I don't need to after all."

Sasori silently took it and their hands brushed against each other. They stiffened in their position but Sasori quickly gained back his composure and managed to break the ice, for like the first time since he's the most awkward person on earth. "So what are you doing here?"

Sakura coughed. "Oh, I'm going to visit aunt later."

He slowly nodded his head, taking a small bit of the bread.

"And well..." Sakura coughed again. "Probably I'm staying over at her house, permanently, till I...erm... graduate from high school or something."

Sasori literally stared at her for like, ten seconds straight.

Sakura stared at the hotdog in her hands, a small, innocent smile appeared on her lips. It was that smile that always made Sasori's heart skipped a beat. "I... miss this place a lot and I realize that the life I wanted is always here. I want to be...here." She started nibbling on her bread.

The redhead opened and closed his mouth like a sick goldfish, trying to register everything that Sakura just said into his head. "Then...Uh, what about you parents?" He asked.

"I called my aunt the other day and asked. She agreed to my request and sort of persuade my mother that she'll take good care of me. I'm moving here in a few more days but I came to visit to thank her personally first." Sakura awkwardly laughed. "I'm going back to our school of course, but I never thought of reuniting with you guys at all. I mean..." Sakura guiltily looked at Sasori. "I just heartlessly left and-"

He grabbed her arms, shocking Sakura for a moment. Staring straight into her eyes, he seriously spoke. "You aren't kidding right? This isn't a joke, right?"

Sakura shook her head. "I'm not joking, Sasori."

_His name, how long has it been since I last said his name? _

"Did Sasori just confessed and Sakura shook her head, rejecting him again?" Pein worriedly frowned.

"I think so, judging from how shock Sasori looked right now." Kisame stroke his chin.

Konan pinched both Pein's and Kisame cheeks as they yelped in pain.

"We can't hear anything since this restaurant is so noisy and they are so far away from us." Itachi sighed.

Deidara stabbed the straw in his drink miserably. "But what should we do? We can't walk to them and just ask what they are talking about. But I'm dying to know yeah!"

Kakuzu shrugged. "Maybe he's actually asking why did she leave her or-"

"Hold the fuck up."

Everyone turned and stared at Hidan as he smirked and pointed at Table 32.

Everyone turned their head again.

Sasori and Sakura.

They were both kissing.

0o0

And yes.

It finally happened.

Never in my life had I thought that meeting a boy in a sausage costume could change my life.

His name is Sasori, and I proudly announce that tomorrow is our wedding! OMGOMG

I will be anticipating for the new chapter in my life, with him. And of course, with all my good ol' buddies.

I'll always _remember_.

Hello. I'm Haruno Sakura. And this is the end of my story.

-fin

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Here's the end! To be honest, even I myself find this story really short and quick but I'm not going to force myself to write any more chapters. Teehee. It's really nice that you guys didn't drop this story after so long so I would like to dedicate this entire chapter to all of you reading this!<p>

Thank you for supporting me throughout these years and I honestly wnated to post this last chapter on the day I first sign up this website but wel... My lazy fingers just cant.


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